Naruto's Second Chance?
by Do The Roar2012
Summary: Naruto is sent back into the past as the Gedo Mazo explodes from inside. White light envelopes Naruto after he experiences his friends die. Naruto wakes up to find himself back in his 12 year old body but with all nine tailed beasts inside him? NaruSaku. Fu a main character too!
1. Chapter 1: Naruto's Second Chance?

**************Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Naruto or the original characters or the original story that Kishimoto Masashi** **made.**

_Italic font is when one is reminiscing to past events/discussions._

**Bold font is a jutsu being performed.**

**Prologue:**

White. That's all he saw. Bright and blinding.

Then there was black. Pitch black. It felt like he was floating in an endless void. Where am I? What happened? Where are they? All these questions swarmed around his head. All of a sudden, in a distance, a soft light emitted from the haunting darkness. He reached for it greedily, wanting for the light to embrace him and guide him to where they were. He reached out and touched the light, instinctively flinching.

How ever, the light was not hot like he expected. It was warm to touch and filled him with warm memories. Ah, I remember now. The brightness filled him and guided him to them.

* * *

**Chapter One: I'm Back?**

Naruto flinched when bright light interrupted his blissful sleep. He opened his eyes to see emerald eyes staring back at him. He blinked. The eyes blinked back in confusion.

"Are you okay?" The female asked. Naruto sat up quickly, almost bumping her.

"Hey! You almost hit me!" She scowled. He looked at the girl in front of him in a mixture of confusion, surprised and awed.

"Sakura-chan?" He whispered. Sakura stopped complaining and looked at the blonde haired kid.

"Yeah? What's up with you? You're acting like you haven't seen me for ages." She said in a confused tone.

Naruto gazed up towards the younger version of Sakura, confusion hitting him hard at what he was seeing. Sakura had lost her patience with the dopey looking Naruto.

"We have class in a minute and I know for sure I will be on Sasuke-kun's team!" Sakura had squealed the last part of her sentence has she headed over towards Ino.

Naruto stood there puzzled has he tried to take everything in has he heard Sakura and Ino insulting each other's appearance before being yanked into a gigantic white room. Naruto immediately realised he had only mentally changed location has he stood in front of all the nine tailed beasts that had sat in a circle around him.

"Why am I here? In fact why are all of you here?" Naruto said in a confused tone but the shock had overwhelmed him has his voice was different, he recognised his younger voice and looked down noticing he was closer to the floor than he usually was and he was back into his old orange jumpsuit.

"Naruto." Saiken said in his deep voice. Naruto looked up towards the slimy tailed beast as he listened carefully.

"We are all here because all of us now reside inside you just like Kurama always has. Due to our chakra connection with you earlier during the war, when the explosion happened and we were all freed from gedo mazo during the explosion, it had caused us all to be forced inside you." Saiken said gently.

Naruto fell to his knees as all the memories of how everything had ended had come back to him instantly.

_Naruto had collapsed to the ground as Kurama was extracted from him along with the other Kurama that had been sealed inside his father. Both the crying Sakura and Hinata had tried healing him though both of their chakra's were distinguished._

_The rest of the tailed beasts were also being extracted as the long chakra chains came out of the Gedo Mazo mouth as it tied around the necks of all then tailed beasts. Each tailed beast had pushed their claws into the ground as they tried to slow the process of being extracted but it was clearly inevitable._

_Madara began laughing sadistically as he was on the verge of victory, even the strange spiralling Zetsu had laid on a rock with carefree emotions radiating out of him as the Zetsu being knew they were victorious._

_Naruto released a steady stream of tears has he watched on at Madara who had placed his foot upon Sasuke's dead body as his heart had finally given up. Naruto could not help but lay there on the verge of death from Kurama being extracted from him. His friends had lost their lives has they tried to protect him. It all happened within mere minutes the annihilation of his friends and the rest of the shinobi alliance._

_First Choji had fallen has he expanded into his gigantic form, only to be stabbed directly in the heart from Madara's Sasuno'o. This had resulted to an anguished Shikamaru to scream in rage at his fallen best friend as he and Ino had sped off towards Madara only to both be stabbed in their backs by the spiral Zetsu that had formed both hands into wooden cork screws._

_Lee and Tenten had rushed towards Madara with Kiba and Shino behind them in pursuit as they had landed in an X formation around Madara as they released their combined attacks but was intercepted by Madara who had placed a hand on each of them has he had pulled out their souls on contact using the absorption soul jutsu._

_As Guy saw from a far with Kakashi by his side as he watched his students and comrades lifeless bodies fall from the head of Gedo Mazo to the ground. Guy could not help but see from a far the the opened eyed youthless gaze Lee had._

_The exhausted Kakashi had watched as Guy began trembling as many multiple coloured types of chakra began surrounding him has Guy screamed in fury as the ground beneath his feet had instantly turned into a crater at the sheer power Guy was emitting._

_**"Eight Gate: Gate of Death!" **Guy's skin turned to a dark crimson red as he burst into the sky at a speed that only Naruto in his bijuu form had displayed and came at Madara with killing intent as he struck Madara with all the strength he could muster in his fist which had gone right through the right shoulder of Madara._

_This had caused the legendary Madara to scream in agony but gripping the taijutsu master's arm that had penetrated him and held him in place as he shot a perfectly blast of Amatesaru into's Guy's face before pulling his arm out and kicking Guy in the chest as Guy began to descend towards the ground as the black flames had swallowed his entire body._

_In Kakashi's state of shock, black Zetsu had released his hold of Obito before gripping Kakashi's head. Kakashi reached behind him to try to grip the black Zetsu as panic had washed over his tired mind before Zetsu applied more pressure resulting in Kakashi's neck breaking._

_The black Zetsu had turned back towards Obito has he felt his heart stop beating which did not shock Zetsu as he knew he was only barely alive because they were merged together. Zetsu reached down before pulling out the Rinnegan from it's fake master and merging back into the ground to give the Rinnegan back to it's rightful master._

_As the ten tailed beasts began to enter the mouth of Gedo Mazo, they had followed the actions of both the Kurama's as they began combining their tailed beast bombs to create an even bigger one before releasing the gigantic ball of destruction inside the Juubi's shell as they had been swallowed up by it._

_At the first few seconds nothing had happened. Gedo Mazo didn't transform into the Juubi like it did before and Madara had stopped laughing as worry began to descend on him as he tried to figure out what was holding up the transformation._

_The Gedo Mazo began cracking instantly all over as white light burst out of of the Juubi's shell as big pieces of it began to fall off. Madara instantly tried to cover Gedo Mazo in his Sasuno'o to protect it from destruction but found his actions were useless as Gedo Mazo exploded causing the legendary Uchiha to disintegrate. Naruto watched as the bright white light began enveloping everything has it rushed towards him.  
_  
Naruto came out of his train of memories has that was the last he had remembered though all the tailed beasts within him had watched the same memory that Naruto had displayed.

Son Goku let out a deep cough to catch the distraught shinobi's attention.

"Naruto we do not know why you survived or even why we are back here in the past but it seems only you have the memory of what happened has the pink haired girl showed no sign of remembering what happened, though she was still alive when the explosion had happened, along with the Hyuga kunoichi." Said Son Goku in a thoughtful tone.

Naruto still couldn't process it as he remained on his knees as he realised all his loved ones had died and could not understand why this has happened. Naruto looked towards Kurama who was noticeably bigger than before, easily the biggest of all the tailed beasts.

"I don't understand still. Are all my friends now dead or what? Why was we even sent back in time! I'm.. I'm all alone again." Naruto said in a heart broken tone.

Kurama expression saddened as he watched Naruto in his young form seemingly break down before their eyes.

"Naruto! This isn't the time to be losing your grip. I do not believe your friends are in the after life but I believe everything that has been done has been reversed back to this very point in life. Naruto this is our second chance to stop Madara and win the war when it is time." Said Kurama in a determined tone.

Kurama had witnessed with the other tailed beasts as they watched Naruto slowly transform back into his normal 17 year old self though physically they knew Naruto remained 12 years old in the time line they were in.

Naruto pulled himself off the ground as he wiped away away his tears with his sleeve before smiling towards all the tailed beasts.

"Thank you Kurama. I won't give up, especially now I know my friends are not dead though I know I'm not close to anyone any more and all alone apart from Iruka sensei. Today is the day I am placed on team Kakashi and just maybe this time I will save Sasuke before Orochimaru can claim him." Said Naruto as he released a sad smile.

Isobu had stepped forward towards Naruto as the giant two tailed beast lowered her head to look Naruto in the eye.

"Naruto you are not as alone as you think. You have all nine of us with you, you don't just have our power, you have our friendship." Said Matatabi in a kind tone.

Naruto felt a small dose of happiness at the thought of having them all by his side as many thoughts ran through his head about saving the future though his thoughts was stopped short when Kurama had spoke up.

"Naruto we can talk about this after but so we don't change the future for the worse you need to hurry up into the classroom before Sakura and experience your first kiss again." Kurama said in an amused voice as he knew Naruto would be against such a thing.

Naruto glared towards Kurama with a sickening expression.

"HELL NO BAKA! That was a mistake and does not even count as a kiss! There is no way I will do that purposely!" Naruto said in an irritated tone.

Kurama had slammed his enormous paw in front of Naruto before growling.

"Naruto! You have to do this. You can not change the future concerning friendships, this is part of your progress with Sasuke and you will do it. Go now!" Kurama stated.

Naruto felt himself being forcibly pushed out of their telepathic meeting as his vision was that of the academy again. Naruto huffed to himself as he quickly rushed into the building and into the class as he stopped short when he saw the young brooding Uchiha in the same seat that he had remembered.

Naruto tried not to cry at the memory of Sasuke dying has he forced himself to wear an arrogant smirk as he sat down next to the Uchiha who had glared at him through the corner of his eyes before looking back towards the classroom board.

Sakura had entered the classroom and stood beside their desk as she pointed a finger towards Naruto.

"Naruto! Move your ass! I want to sit on the other side of you!" Said Sakura in an angry tone.

Naruto faked his annoyance and allowed Sakura to push him downwards as she spoke to Sasuke about sitting next to him. Naruto followed his past actions by jumping up on the desk to squat in front of Sasuke as they were face to face glaring at each other.

Naruto forced himself to continue the glare as he knew any second the kid behind him would accidentally hit him with his elbow.

As Naruto felt the nudged, he forced his own body's instinct to try to stop himself pushing over as he felt his lips impact Sasuke's and feeling the same sick feeling as he felt bile rise in his throat.

Immediately they both began coughing and spluttering everywhere while Sakura began cracking her knuckles as she told Naruto he is annoying before clobbering him with her fists like she used to do when they were kids.

Iruka sensei had entered the classroom and began to announce the teams. Naruto quickly repeated the same speech as before about being an outstanding shinobi and having to be on the same team as Sasuke when Iruka had revealed that Naruto was dead last while Sasuke had the highest score.

Now Naruto simply had to do the pathetic act of tying up Sasuke before using the hengu jutsu to impersonate Sasuke and meet Sakura on the bench.

After Naruto feigned that he had to go like he once had to due to diarrhoea, he quickly hid into the tree's to watch what had happened afterwards as he watched the real Sasuke walk up to Sakura.

Naruto listened to the harsh words she spoke about himself, speaking as if he had a carefree life when he had abruptly heard Sasuke put Sakura in her place before telling her she was annoying and walked away from her.

Naruto smiled inwardly at that and made his way to the room where he, Sasuke and Sakura had to wait for Kakashi though he would be several hours early and he knew Kakashi would be late.

Naruto sat down on the sofa before feeling himself arrive in his telepathic state which was still of his older normal self. Naruto looked around and was shocked to have arrived in a beautiful area filled with endless fields and a gigantic lake instead of a giant white space.

Naruto saw all of the tailed beasts resting in the lake as he approached them. Naruto eyed Kurama first wondering why he was so much bigger.

"Hey Kurama! Why are you a lot bigger than before?" Said Naruto in a puzzled tone.

Kurama looked down towards Naruto as he walked out of the lake and shook his fur, causing the excess water to soak Naruto.

Kurama chuckled to himself as he watched Naruto start ranting.

"As we were forced into you due to the explosion, me and my other half had merged as one again." Stated Kurama.

Naruto nodded as he understood before settling himself beside the lake to let his legs dangle in the water before asking a question to all of them.

"Why did we actually go back in time? Why didn't we just die?." Said Naruto in a confused tone.

All the tailed beasts had glanced at each other before Gyuki had walked over towards Naruto as he bumped fists with the blue eyed shinobi.

"Naruto none of us are quite sure. Maybe it has something to do with us causing the explosion and our chakra protected you or something completely different how ever we have realised this is a blessing in a way since we can stop history from repeating it self for the better." Said Gyuki in a hopeful tone.

Naruto agreed with this though the pain was still there. He longed to tell someone. Someone that he had the closest bond to.

"I.. I know you all want me to keep what will happen in the future to myself but I need to tell someone. I can not just keep this to myself and if I'm going to change the future from repeating itself then I will need help." Said Naruto in a pleading voice.

The tailed beasts all looked towards Kurama as a sign for him to decide. The giant fox peered down towards Naruto's sad eyes before making a decision.

"I will allow you to tell the third hokage and one friend and I mean only one friend that you believe will be able to handle this. We need to keep history from going on a completely different path until the war happens." Kurama said.

Naruto smiled at the thought of the third hokage being alive and helping him with all his wisdom and he knew immediately what friend he was going to tell.

"Thank you guys. I have one more question Kurama, is our chakra still merged together?" Naruto asked curiously

Kurama and the rest of the tailed beasts had identical grins as Kurama responded to his best friend.

"Naruto remember we said you have our power? Well it's not just mine any more. Your chakra and all of our chakra are merged as one. You have a lot more power than you used to have but you can not enter your bijuu state until much later on when we are alone." Said Kurama with excitement.

Naruto nodded in agreement. Curious to see if he would look the same when entering the bijuu state. A thought had occurred to Naruto as he asked his question to them all.

"Now we have a second chance and back into the past. What has happened about all your previous jinchuuriki. Do you all have twins now or do they no longer have their jinchuuriki." Said Naruto in a curious tone.

Shukaku scoffed to himself at Naruto's remark.

"Oh we definitely have as you say twins now. My other self is still residing in that Gaara brat though he is just as demented as he was before instead of the peaceful kazekage he had become. For his sake and the world sake Naruto when the time comes, you'll have to change his heart like you had done before. All this type of events are crucial." Said Shukaku in a serious tone.

Kurama had eyed Shukaku in amusement which Shukaku had noticed has he turned towards Kurama.

"Yeah that's right you stupid fox, I know what I'm talking about." Said Shukaku in an arrogant tone.

Kurama merely grinned towards his brother, not bothering to reply to Shukaku's remark.

"The chubby raccoon is right Naruto. Even if minor details are different, it's the results being the same that counts but for instance saving someone you can do if they were to die in the past, how ever the same results still need to happen." Kurama said as a reminder.

Naruto took that in, knowing that will happen in the future.

**Well guys that the end of chapter one. Please leave a review as I would very much appreciate to know your views on my second fanfic.**

**Just a reminder I do not want all sentences from the manga to be exactly the same or wrote out completely, this is my story so I'm not keeping it exactly like the manga, it's kinda the given as you will see by the next few chapters that it will be much different to the manga obviously. :)**


	2. Chapter 2: The Confession

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Naruto or the original characters or the original story that Kishimoto Masashi** **made.**

**Chapter Two: The Confession**

Naruto sat there in the room with Sasuke and Sakura as they waited for Kakashi. Naruto had only momentarily set up the same prank as he did in the past by placing the board eraser on top of the door.

As Kakashi opened the door, the eraser had fell onto his head causing Naruto to laugh and ridicule his sensei just like he did before. Once they had entered outside and had spoken about their likes and dislikes and Naruto once again had to feign panicking as Kakashi had revealed that tomorrow during survival training there was a 66% failure rate.

* * *

Tomorrow had arrived and all four were at the training grounds to begin their survival test as Kakashi had explained the task to retrieve the two bells from Kakashi. Naruto grinned to himself has he threw the taunts at Kakashi about being slow, resulting in Kakashi referring to Naruto as dead last.

Naruto knew things wouldn't be the same time time around as he pretended to be angry as he pulled out the kunai to throw at Kakashi.

As expected Kakashi had appeared behind Naruto. Kakashi was about to place his hands on Naruto to pull the kunai in his hand up to the back of Naruto's head. Naruto had disappeared entirely causing Kakashi to startle.

Just like Naruto had instantly disappeared, this time he had instantly reappeared with the kunai in Kakashi's hand to be raised to be pointed behind Kakashi's head. Just like Kakashi had done to Naruto in his original past.

Both Sakura and Sasuke had mirrored expressions of pure shock at what they had witnessed. Naruto released his hold and kunai before standing back with his team. Sasuke continued to stare at Naruto.

'What on earth? I could not even follow Naruto's movements, even Kakashi had displayed such speed but Naruto had easily trampled on that with his own speed. How can this dead beat even do this to a jonin?' Thought Sasuke bitterly.

Kakashi glanced round towards Naruto as the shock had washed away and was replaced with a nostalgic feeling has he remembered his sensei.

"Well guys that was something I had not expected. How ever I will not let my guard down and the only way you will successfully claim these bells off me is if you three come at me with killing intent" Kakashi said in a calm tone.

Kakashi had disappeared leaving the three shinobi to themselves.

'I would never have believed that kid would be so fast considering he had such poor results from the academy.' Kakashi had thought to himself.

Kakashi had watched Naruto from a distance who had sat down and closed his eyes from where they all had left. Kakashi wondered if the fourth kokage son had simply given up.

Naruto kept himself still as he began to draw in the nature energy. Thankful that he was still able to do this and was still up to the level of progress in hid past time line has he faced downwards as he opened his eyes.

He could not afford for anyone to see his eyes as he had entered sage mode. Naruto had quickly sensed where all three of them were. Keeping his eyes closed tightly as he disappeared before reappearing behind the hiding Kakashi before snatching both bells.

Before Kakashi had a chance to turn, Naruto had booted Kakashi in the back with his sage mode strength causing Kakashi to come flying out of the tree before recovering himself as he landed elegantly on the ground.

Naruto quickly disappeared before arriving behind Sakura a few seconds later as he opened his eyes again just after he had deactivated his sage mode.

"Sakura take these two bells and give one to Sasuke. Please don't ask, just do it and do not tell Sasuke how you retrieved them. Just remember this, the way to beat this test and better ourselves as ninjas is one vital key.. team work!" Said Naruto in a serious tone.

Sakura stared at him blankly at what he had done before accepting the two bells as she thanked him before disappearing. Naruto smiled to himself before turning it into a big grin as he stepped out in the open.

Kakashi was truly confused, the kick he had received was definitely chakra enhanced at the very least and he could not possibly figure out how on earth Naruto had found him so easily and yet here was Naruto casually sitting on the wooden post as if he was waiting for something.

Sasuke continued to watch has he had watched earlier Naruto disappear before returning back casually after a few minutes. Sasuke was interrupted with his spying has he felt Sakura's annoying presence behind him. Has he turned towards her with the intentions to tell her to get lost he was taken back as she held two bells in front of him.

"Sakura how did you even manage that?" Sasuke said in a flabbergasted tone.

Sakura had handed one of the bells over to Sasuke who eagerly took it from Sakura as he held it gingerly. Sakura had not told Sasuke the truth though she was not sure why she had listened to Naruto, she thought to herself that it was most likely she had felt guilty for being horrible to Naruto yesterday.

Both Sasuke and Sakura had emerged as they held up the two bells on display for their silver haired sensei to see.

Kakashi knew this wasn't right and he could see the confusion on Sasuke face. Naruto had given them the bells or at least to Sakura and gave himself up.

'They've not learned the sense of team work.' Kakashi thought to himself.

Kakashi was stopped short as Sasuke stood by Naruto's side. Sasuke looked towards the smiling Naruto as he was deep in thought before looking towards Kakashi.

"Kakashi sensei it seems Naruto has willing given up the bells though he had rightly won them for us, how ever if you desire to fail us for this go ahead." Said Sasuke in a serious voice.

Kakashi was about to comment when he felt his legs being gripped by two hands has he was pulled into the earth just in time to look up as Sasuke was descending from the air before he had successfully landed a round house kick to Kakashi's head.

Sakura had appeared to Kakashi's side with the tip of the kunai pointed at his temple. Confusion was overwhelming Kakashi today.

"Naruto had a clever idea. We all knew we would try to get the bells by ourselves how ever Naruto had managed to get the bells off you and handed it to us though when Sakura had handed me one of them. I noticed there was no sound emitting from the bell so I looked into the gap and noticed a thin piece of paper which had Naruto's plan on it to work together to not just get the bells but to bring you down." Said Sasuke in a superior tone.

Kakashi was shocked that Naruto's plan was to form a team work scenario. Kakashi knew he had to keep an eye on the Uzumaki boy has clearly he was completely different to what the paper work had said. Kakashi pushed himself out of the ground before throwing his thumb in the air.

"You three have passed. Honestly today you three have excelled my expectations." Said Kakashi in a happy tone.

Naruto grinned to himself has he could not help but try to throw a clue Kakashi's way.

"Well the only way to win and show you what we were capable of is by team work. Ninjas who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trashed but you know what? Those who don't take care of their comrades are lower than trash!" Said Naruto in a confident voice.

Sakura and Sasuke had both stared at Naruto as they wasn't sure exactly what caused Naruto to say this but the look on their sensei face was has if he had seen a ghost. Kakashi quickly composed himself before dismissing them and giving them their assignment for tomorrow.

Kakashi could not wrap his head around those words, how did Naruto know it? How was this barely passable genin able to shock him this much.

Sasuke had waved a good bye to Naruto and Sakura has he headed back to his home but Sakura had slowed the pace of her walk as she eyed Naruto.

'I want to find out more about Naruto. It's like he has changed this week to a whole new person.' Sakura thought to himself.

Sakura was quickly knocked out of her thought has Naruto approached her with a warm smile.

"Sakura I need to talk to you, can we go somewhere more quiet?" Said Naruto in a casual tone.

Sakura would of usually told him to do one but she felt okay with agreeing has she nodded towards Naruto as he lead the way outside of Konoha. Twenty minutes had passed as they were a fair distance away from anyone before Naruto had turned around abruptly to face her.

"Sakura please listen carefully for what I'm about to tell you." Said Naruto in a nervous tone.

Sakura eyed Naruto has she could not figure out what Naruto wanted to say as he closed his eyes.

"Hey Naruto, let me speak to her." Said Kurama in a serious tone.

Sakura was shocked and slightly scared as Naruto had opened his eyes, his pupil had turned to slits and the iris around his eyes had become crimson red.

"Sakura I will be able to explain everything." Said Naruto in a new deep voice that had scared her even more.

The red eyed Naruto had closed the distance between them both which made Sakura far too scared to even move away as she felt Naruto place his hand either side of her temples before many vivid memories began rushing through his mind as if she was watching a movie.

Sakura could see all these memories of her and her team first missions. their beloved hokage dying. A new female hokage. Sasuke leaving to join a pale creepy guy, Naruto leaving with a tall long white haired man.

Naruto returning looking much taller, older and surprisingly handsome. Sakura saw her older self. Their friendship blossoming after his return where it seemed they spent all their free time in each other's accompany.

Naruto turning into a red chakra beast. Sakura crying over him has she tried to heal him. An older Sasuke who tried to kill Naruto and a pale boy. Her, Naruto and their friends fighting strange powerful men with black robes covered in red clouds.

A man with ginger hair destroying their village with strange purple eyes with black ripples. Naruto arriving to battle the man and his comrades with the same eyes though Naruto had different eyes too and he seemed extremely powerful.

Naruto letting a dark skinned kunoichi beat him without putting up a fight. All the shinobis from other villages uniting to fight against a orange masked man. Naruto arriving in a golden chakra with speed and power that she didn't even know could exist as her, Naruto and Sasuke had fought together against these strange men and a gigantic beast with the same rippling eyes but it was red like a sharingan with Sharingan markings.

A white explosion enveloping her and Naruto before Naruto had returned back to his past.

Naruto took control again as soon has his hands had left Sakura's head. Sakura immediately noticed Naruto's eyes were blue again as she tried to process everything she had witnessed.

She was shocked to see how everyone had physically and personality wise had changed, even herself. She seemed truly skilled in the healing ninjutsu and she was amazed at the power Naruto and Sasuke had displayed.

She could not wrap her head around Sasuke's actions or the fact her and Naruto had seemed at the very least had become incredibly close and the amount of times he had saved her.

Naruto stood there quietly as he watched Sakura trying to take in everything she had witnessed. At least ten minutes had passed as Sakura stared at Naruto with a blank expression before looking down to the ground.

"Naruto.. I'm not sure what to say. I would ask how but I saw that even you did not know how you had come back to the past. I mean my present.. I mean.. I mean." Said Sakura in a distressed tone.

Naruto could tell she was really over whelmed by it all and gave her time to compose herself.

"I just I really did not expect for our future to be destroyed in only a few years away. I didn't expect any of what's going to happen to happen." Sakura said in an upset tone.

Sakura felt Naruto place an arm on her shoulder has he stared her in the eyes with confidence.

"That is why I will do everything in my power to change the future. I refuse to let Madara get his way and take over this world. I will explain everything in my apartment if you desire in detail but you have to make sure not to tell anyone, not even Sasuke! Do you understand Sakura?" Said Naruto urgently.

Sakura nodded her head as she once again followed Naruto as he had led the way to his apartment. Over four hours had passed as Naruto had told Sakura every detail about themselves and the future and answering any questions she had.

Sakura had sipped at her orange juice as Naruto had finished telling her everything before pushing himself back further into the sofa as he sighed to himself.

Sakura could not think of anything else she had not already asked him before one thought popped into her mind.

"Naruto. Did you respond to Hinata's love confession?" Sakura had asked curiously.

Naruto looked towards her before looking up at the ceiling.

"No.. I was planning to let her down gently after the war but I never got the chance." Said Naruto in a saddened voice.

Sakura felt sorry for Naruto has he had experienced it all and still managed to keep breathing.

"How come if you do not mind me asking? Hinata is pretty and well she grew up to be very beautiful." Sakura said gently.

Sakura felt bad to feel jealous at a time like this as she noticed her future self did not have the same developed chest that Hinata had developed.

"Well Hinata is incredibly beautiful but I've always had my heart for someone else." Naruto answered casually as he tried to hide the fact that it was always Sakura he had loved.

Sakura stared at Naruto as she was curious to see if it was her as she saw in his memories of the constant asking of her being his date and even during the war he had told his dead father who was bound on the living plane by the second Hokage's jutsu invention that was used by some creepy guy that Sakura was his girlfriend sort of and she looked at her future face expression which held no denial or anger at Naruto words apart from striking him.

Sakura knew her face better than anyone's and she could tell when she was truly angry or just exaggerating it and in that memory it was exaggerated.

Could she had have returned Naruto's love if he indeed loved her? It appeared in all her memories that her future self was definitely at least best friends with Naruto but she wondered at the possibilities.

She would never in a million years think of Naruto in that way if someone had asked her if she liked Naruto in that way six hours ago but now she was unsure on what to think or feel.

If they changed the future would their friendship still grow to what she saw or not. Only time could tell but she could not help but look at Naruto in curiosity

Sakura was truly seeing him in a new light.

Naruto got up before performing a summoning jutsu. Naruto was surprised it had worked considering the future was now non existent. A large brown bag had appeared on the table in which Naruto had opened up as Sakura peeked over before shock had hit her at the sight of all that money.

"I am truly shocked this even worked! Before the war once it was known who my father and mother was. I had inherited their savings and so I placed it in a summoning seal and stored it in myself. I only just randomly remembered it and now I won't have to worry financially like I used to as a kid plus in this time line I can claim the same inheritance!." Said Naruto in a cheerful tone.

Sakura looked down at her fists that she placed on her lap.

"Naruto I'm sorry." Said Sakura in an apologetic tone.

"Huh what for Sakura?" Naruto asked in a puzzled tone.

"For everything I've done in my past. I don't even give you the time of the day and looked at you as if you were something beneath my feet where it is I who is merely something beneath your feet. You have done so much for me already and though I haven't personally experienced it yet but I can see what you have done for me and how close we will be and I really want that bond with you. I am sorry for everything Naruto." Said Sakura in a sad tone as tears began to well up in her eyes.

Naruto quickly closed the distance to hug Sakura as she buried her head into his shoulder as she returned the hug.

"Sakura honestly it is fine. I forgave you for that years ago in my time and I'm just grateful you and everyone else are still alive and I will make sure this time it stays that way." Naruto said with fire in his voice.

Several minutes had passed before Sakura and Naruto had ended their hug. Sakura quickly wiped her eyes to get rid of the excess tears before looking out of the window towards the sky as she noticed it was already dark.

"I have to go home Naruto but we have our first mission tomorrow. I'll see you in the morning." Said Sakura in a heavy tone as she was still upset and guilty for what she had done.

Naruto waved good bye as she let herself out. Naruto took several seconds to compose himself as he was grateful everything went smoother than he had thought. Naruto jumped out of his window and made his way to the hokage building to finally tell the old man everything but he was more excited in finally seeing the hokage alive this time.

The old Hokage sank back into his chair has the young Uzumaki had shown him everything, even his own demise. After an hour of talking between the two the hokage had walked over before hugging the young boy as he could not believe what had happened and how Naruto had survived it. Naruto welcomed the hug has he hugged back tightly.

After their hug broke the old hokage pulled his hat off before resting it on the desk.

"Naruto you will have to keep it a secret that you have the other eight tailed beasts inside you. If these Akatsuki members knew you had all of the tailed beasts they would surely all come after you together. From what I've seen you may use your bijuu mode in dire need but never reveal to anyone else besides your friend of the power you hold." Said Sarutobi strictly.

Naruto started to scratch at the back of his head as he grinned weakly.

"Well I'm not so sure about the bijuu mode. I don't know if I'll look exactly the same if I entered it now with all of our chakra combined." Said Naruto softly.

The Hokage stared at Naruto in thought.

"Test it out Naruto. No one will be able to sense you in here for the next five minutes" Said the third Hokage as he placed an unknown seal on the floor.

Naruto stood up straight as he activated his bijuu mode.

**That's the end of chapter 2. Please leave a review on your thoughts and anything else on my chapter. Thank you everyone for all your support!**


	3. Chapter 3: Five Elements?

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Naruto or the original characters or the original story that Kishimoto Masashi** **made.**

**Chapter Three: All Five Elements?**

Naruto had activated his bijuu mode as he stared at his own bright reflection at the window behind the Hokage's desk.

"I..I look the same as before?" Said Naruto to himself blankly.

Sarutobi looked at Naruto in amazement as he watched the golden chakra surrounding him as if Naruto was on fire as the many black seals and markings had covered his body though his eyes were red and his pupils were dilated into slits.

"No Naruto you look incredible, you are literally radiating chakra everywhere." Answered the elderly Hokage as he thought Naruto was asking him the question.

Naruto simply shook his head.

"No I was merely speaking to myself, this is the form I take when I activate our power but with the other tailed beasts in me I thought I would look different except I look exactly the same as I usually do. Give me a moment old man." Naruto said in a concentrated tone.

Naruto had closed his eyes before arriving back at the beautiful scenery though it was obvious his friends were expecting him has they stood in a circle around him. The giant white beast that resembled a horse's body had stepped forward as he looked down at Naruto with his huge baby blue eyes.

"Naruto I know why you are here and we've realised the answer the moment you looked at your own reflection. Due to Kurama being the first tailed beast inside you and establishing the merging of both of your chakra's it is safe to assume this will forever be your bijuu form no matter how many of us are inside you but considering we have merged our chakra to your own as well we only know two things that we can safely say." Said Chomei in a peaceful tone.

"What are they then?" Naruto said in a curious tone as he smiled towards his friend. The humongous grey spikey shelled tailed beast leaned forward to answer instead.

"Though you have not physically changed when you enter the bijuu mode but the power you have is far greater than you have ever experienced and you need to be careful when using this as you do not want to be known just yet for your power until the akatsuki have made themselves known to you. Second with all of our power instead of only having an affinity to wind, you now have an affinity for all five elements." Answered Isobu casually.

Naruto was simply amazed at the new powers he had gained. This would definitely help in the future when the war began though he would have to train more than he ever had before as a child in the past to put these five elements into use.

"Your clone training will be able to help but I suggest you do this training discreetly so no one knows what you are capable of, surprise is a powerful element in a battle as you know." Said Kurama as he nudged Naruto playfully with his paw.

Naruto instantly came back to the present has he noticed the old Hokage lighting up his pipe as he waited for Naruto to open his eyes. Naruto deactivated his bijuu mode instantly before sitting down in front of the hokage desk as he gazed up to Sarutobi who had set aside his pipe on to the desk as he placed himself in his own seat.

"Don't worry old man I will keep my power a secret until I no longer can. I want to keep history as close as possible to what I know. Though things may change but as long as the same events and results happen, I will be able to predict everything." Naruto had stated with steel in his voice.

The Hokage nodded towards Naruto.

'Hopefully you can Naruto but even the slightest change can make things very unpredictable. If it does I just hope you have the power to stop Madara when the time comes.' Sarutobi had thought to himself.

"Anyway I want to go home, I'm shattered and tomorrow I know our mission will be to retrieve that pesky cat." Said Naruto in a bored tone as he waved good bye to the old Hokage as he headed back home.

Thirty minutes had passed as Naruto placed several privacy jutsu's in his apartment so that no one could sense his chakra for the future when he practised his bijuu mode though when he had earlier entered it he still felt the ease of handling the chakra just the same as he did before.

Naruto quickly wrote down a list of new furniture his apartment would need so that it could feel like his new home that he had grown accustomed to after Konoha's destruction when his new home was built.

Naruto had got ready for bed before closing his eyes as he drifted to sleep rather quickly.

Naruto appeared back in the same scenery that the tailed beasts had created for themselves but he was confused to why he was here as the last thing he remembered was laying in bed. Naruto heard a deep cough behind him has he turned round to all of his giant friends.

"Naruto I hope you realise that everything you feel, all of your thoughts are echoed into our world inside you, even your subconscious. Though you are asleep you can still enter here like you would do normally or we can pull you in here ourselves while you are asleep just like we did now. The reason we brought you here is for your training. In your sleep we can teach you how to develop your other four elements since right now you are quite skilled in your wind affinity so there is no point in focusing on that and with your clones you can use your clone training here too just like you would on the outside, all the same principles apply here too." Kurama had stated in an eager voice as watched Naruto's expression turn to joy.

Naruto simply grinned with joy at the fact he could train discreetly away from prying eyes directly in his own mind and when he was asleep!

"This is brilliant guys! We could do this every night! Who will be teaching me each affinity?" Naruto asked in wonder.

Shukaku stepped forward before the rest of his brothers and sister.

"When you feel like it I can further your wind ninjutsu training." Shukaku had stated arrogantly has he sneered towards Kurama.

"Thank you Shukaku! Is it possible for you guys to shrink down at all? It's sort of hurting my neck to be staring upwards all the time." Naruto had asked in a cheerful tone.

Instantly all the tailed beasts began to shrink down before standing only to be several feet taller than Naruto. Matatabi had stepped forward as the blue glow of her body had seemed a lot brighter the closer she got to Naruto.

"I will help train you to learn your affinity for fire." Answered Matatabi in a light tender tone.

Son Goku had bounded towards Naruto before clapping a big gorilla hand on his shoulder.

"I shall be the one to help you train for your earth affinity young Uzumaki!" Son Goku said in a big loud voice.

Isobu quickly turned into a big spikey ball as he sped across to Naruto before standing on all fours in front of Naruto.

"Don't forget about me boy, I will be more than glad to help you with your water ninjutsu." Said Isobu in a proud voice.

Gyuki had calmly walked over towards Naruto to bump fists with him.

"Of course I will help you in your affinity for lightning just like I did with Bee-san." Said Gyuki in a sad voice as it was clear he had missed his friend.

Naruto could not help but smile in glee at all the help he was receiving from his friends.

"Thank you everyone! I promise I will not let you down." Said Naruto excitedly.

Naruto brought his hands together as he summoned one hundred clones before barking orders to go to the five tailed beasts that will be helping him train as twenty clones went off with the individual beasts.

The original Naruto had walked over towards Kurama, Saiken, Kokuo and Chomei has they had walked over away from the training to talk.

Naruto quickly hopped towards the four beasts as he sat with them between Kurama and Saiken.

"Naruto how come you are not training with your clones?" Asked Chomei as the tailed beast began hovering in the air.

"Eh my clones can handle it plus I want to hang with you guys, it's weird that I'm sleeping but here I feel wide awake." Naruto said in amazement.

Saiken let out a loud acid burp which formed into a big bubble before floating in the air towards the endless sky.

Naruto couldn't help but laugh at the sight of it, Naruto could never again imagine all of his friends as monsters as they were simply just the same as any other kind person though he knew why they were referred to has evil monsters and it was because of the greed of shinobi who desired their powers over the centuries that made the tailed beasts so hostile towards humans.

"You best prepare yourself Naruto for any changes now. This time line is now your only time line, we may know what happens in the future and try our best to keep things the same way but if things changed, you have to prepare yourself for any surprises. Please do not rely on the future as your only guide to winning against Madara." Kokou had said in a serious tone.

Naruto knew this was true and nodded his head towards the white tailed beast.

"I understand, the foes we are to face won't be nowhere as hard as they used to be and any other surprises that come our way I will simply smash through them all. I refuse to let any of my precious people die this time!" Naruto exclaimed with determination.

The four tailed beasts smiled towards Naruto as they felt his confidence wash over them.

'I know you can do it Naruto and we'll be here every step of the way with you.' Kurama had thought to himself.

For the next few hours Naruto and his tailed beasts companions had discussed minor things and what this time line holds for them.

* * *

Naruto woke up from his slumber as he stretched all of his limbs as he smiled to himself. Naruto had remembered everything in his telepathic state with his tailed beast friends instead of forgetting it like he would a dream. Naruto quickly washed up and got dressed to meet his team.

Before leaving Naruto had summoned three clones to re-furnish his apartment and get the new clothes he desired. An hour had passed before the four of them was stood in front of the hokage and Iruka as they handed over the cat to it's owner who was physically hugging the cat too tight, the poor thing Naruto thought to himself.

As they listened to the Hokage about their next tedious mission, Naruto had held his hand up to stop the Hokage speech.

"Sorry but no old man. We demands a more important task instead of these lame ass tasks you are handing us." Said Naruto in a bored tone.

Sasuke and Sakura had both been on the same brain wave as Naruto as they did not wish to waste their time with such boring missions. Immediately the red faced Iruka had started shouting at the three of them.

"You idiot! You are just a rookie! Everyone starts off with the simple duties and work their way up!" Iruka had said in an irritated tone.

The Hokage had held his hand up to stop Iruka who was surprised at the hokage interfering in his scolding.

"If these genin desire a higher rank mission then so be it. I'll give your team a C rank mission to protect a certain individual. Please come in here" Said the old Hokage.

Naruto knew the remark Tazuna would make as a second later the old drunk had walked in before ridiculing him about his stupid face and short appearance. Naruto retorted back angrily just the same way he had done in the past as he let Kakashi grab him by the collar as he was lectured about not killing the person that their meant to protect.

After Tazuna had bragged about being an expert bridge builder they made their way to Konoha's gates as Naruto was just as excited as he was before in his past time line but for different reasons. As they made their journey with Tazuna, Kakashi had noticed a puddle on the path way though it had not rained for several days.

Naruto remembered what happened in his old time line and Sakura knew from the memories she was shown that two ninjas would jump out to attack Kakashi once they passed it. As they passed the puddle, Naruto quickly spun round before performing one of the jutsu's he had learned last night as he began performing the necessary seal.

**"Wind Release: Multi Wind Blade Jutsu!" **Four sharp wind blades cut across in an X formation across the two shinobi's chest as they were sent flying several metres away from the blast of the wind jutsu.

All of them besides Sakura had looked on with shock at Naruto performing an B rank jutsu. Kakashi kept his expression calm as he walked over towards the injured shinobis.

"Tazuna." Kakashi said blankly

"What?" Replied Tazuna as he was clearly shaken up.

"We need to talk later." Answered Kakashi as he began tying up the two shinobi to the nearest tree.

"Who are you two and what business do you have with Tazuna?" Kakashi asked as he squatted down beside the pair of ninja's as he held a kunai in his hand as he remembered Ibiki explaining to him about interrogation and just the implication that you will physically torture them will make them spill the beans usually.

"We.. We are the demon brothers and we were hired by an unknown client to take out Tazuna before he made it back to the land of the waves." Stated one of the brothers.

Kakashi had hit both of the demon brothers over the head with the back of the kunai to knock them out as he lead the way to continue their path as he questioned Tazuna more on the matter as they listened to Tazuna explain about the bridge being a threat to Gatou who is one of the world's most wealthiest men and why he has hired ninjas to eliminate him before the bridge is built.

As they made it through the vegetation system on the small boat that Tazuna friend had used by means of travel they had finally arrived. Two minutes had passed and Naruto knew he had to act like a buffoon again by throwing shuriken towards a snow rabbit for Kakashi to notice that in this time of the season a snow rabbit shouldn't be there.

After Naruto had done this silly act, a large sword had been thrown their way as all of them ducked quickly to avoid losing their heads as the sword had landed into the tree becoming stuck.

Instantly Zabuza had landed to stand on the hilt of his sword as he looked down at the hidden leaf shinobi though his focus was more on the copy ninja, Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan.

"Everyone cover Tazuna, this ninja is on another level compared to the demon brothers we encountered." Stated Kakashi has he gripped his head protector that had covered his hidden Sharingan.

Sakura looked at Naruto as she remembered what would happen as he nodded for her to stay where she was besides Tazuna. Zabuza had revealed about Kakashi possessing the Sharingan which caused the shock expression to form on Sasuke's face has he knew Kakashi was not an Uchiha.

Kakashi said Zabuza's name as he pulled his head protector to rest on his forehead as he revealed his Sharingan.

Kakashi, Sasuke and Zabuza began stating the facts about the Sharingan.

As Zabuza mentioned about Kakashi copying over thousand jutsu's with his Sharingan a Naruto's clone had appeared behind Zabuza as the clone bent down to sweep Zabuza's legs but Zabuza jumped up in time to dodge the attack how ever the second clone that had hidden away on top of the tree from earlier on had slammed his combined fists down on Zabuza's head causing the hidden mist demon flying towards the ground before flipping mid air to land on his feet in time.

'That brat managed to land a hit on me? I'll have to watch out for the blonde one.' Zabuza thought to himself.

Zabuza quickly landed onto the lake as he took his stance with one arm stretched towards the sky with two fingers pointed as his other hand was placed in front of his mouth with two fingers pointed up again as he released a large amount of chakra which both Kakashi and Naruto had noted as the thick mist around them began to increase rapidly.

Naruto stood by with Tazuna as he knew what would happen next as Kakashi and Zabuza began to battle. Naruto gripped Sakura's arm as he let Kurama replay this memory in her head. Sasuke watched on as panic began to seize at him from the thick mist as the two jonin battled before his thoughts were interrupted by Kakashi.

"Sasuke, Don't worry. I'll protect you guys even if it kills me. I don't let my comrades die." Kakashi said with a smile in his eyes.

Suddenly Zabuza had appeared in the centre of Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna, as he was about to slash at the genin, Kakashi had quickly blocked his path as he stabbed a kunai into Zabuza.

Zabuza quickly dispersed into water as it was revealed it was a water clone as Zabuza had struck down Kakashi torso with his sword before the copy cat ninja had dispersed into water too, Zabuza was shocked that Kakashi had managed to copy the jutsu even through the mist.

As the real Kakashi had appeared behind Zabuza with a kunai aimed at Zabuza's neck and told Zabuza not to move. Zabuza had once again dispersed into water though no impact had been made as finally the real Zabuza had appeared again behind Kakashi.

"I'm not so easy to defeat!" Whispered Zabuza into Kakashi's ear.

Zabuza had swiped his massive sword towards Kakashi but Kakashi had managed to duck in time before being booted hard as he was sent flying into the lake. Kakashi immediately felt the water was much heavier than it should of been when positioned himself on one knee before Zabuza had appeared at his left side as he held his hand out stretched towards the kneeling Kakashi.

**"Water Release: Water Prison Jutsu!" **Kakashi was immediately trapped into a water sphere that had restricted his movements. Kakashi began to focus on calming himself down so he did not lose any more of his air supply.

Sakura had looked towards Naruto urgently as he stared back with a smile, this was the time where things would not be the same as before as he watched Zabuza produce a water clone to attack them.

Naruto had closed his eyes softly as the hiding clone he had produced earlier had dispersed. An orange tinge had appeared on Naruto's eye lids and around his eyes. Naruto kept his eyes closed so no one could see the change before running towards Zabuza's close.

"Naruto what are you doing? Run away and open your eyes for crying out loud!" Kakashi had shouted urgently towards his student.

Zabuza stared blankly towards the blonde haired kid rushing towards him with his eyes closed.

"Kid you are either very brave to come at me or you extremely stupid and arrogant approaching a shinobi like myself with your eyes closed you stupid brat!" Spat Zabuza with a snigger.

"Sasuke attack the real Zabuza!" Shouted Naruto.

As the water clone swiped the huge sword at Naruto who had quickly ducked before pushing with his powerful legs empowered by sage mode against the ground as he launched himself towards Zabuza as he swung his fist forward in to the water clone before the clone had dispersed.

Sasuke was amazed at Naruto's speed before focusing on the real Zabuza has he had jumped in the air before throwing several demon shurikens towards Zabuza.

Zubuza had easily caught one of the demon shurikens with his spare hand before jumping over the second one. Zabuza saw the third one coming at him and quickly threw the demon shuriken that he had caught before straight at the third demon shuriken to change it's path.

Zabuza instantly felt the blonde haired kid's presence but simply did not have enough time to act before he felt a powerful punch into his back that sent him flying straight into a tree which had snapped in half as Zabuza's body had carried on flying through the air into the second tree which had managed to survive the impact of Zabuza's body.

Naruto kept his eyes closed as he continued to sense Zabuza's movements. Zabuza managed to stand up straight as he coughed up a bit of blood into his hand.

"Brat! You'll regret causing me to bleed boy." Shouted the enraged Zabuza.

Zabuza and Kakashi began performing several identical hand seals as they both shouted "**Water Release: Water Dragon Blast Jutsu!" **A large identical water dragon head was produced by both the jonin as their jutsu's had collided and cancelled each other's jutsu out.

Kakashi had continued to copy Zabuza movements perfectly to the point where he was even producing the next jutsu before him which had made a huge water explosion has it had impacted Zabuza and sent him flying once again into a tree.

As Kakashi was about to land the final blow, two needles shot out from the sky and stabbed right through Zabuza's neck as it stuck out on the other side of his neck.

Kakashi and Sasuke had looked up to the mystery shinobi who was wearing a missing nin hunter mask to conceal their identity. Naruto wasn't surprised but kept up the pretence regardless and Sakura had recognised the shinobi and knew that this shinobi was secretly Zabuza's ally through Naruto's memories.

'Naruto why don't you just reveal who this guy is? We know Zabuza's not really dead so why not say something!' Sakura had thought to herself as she watched the next event.

Kakashi had leapt down to check whether Zabuza was dead or not. Kakashi had let the missing nin hunter thank him before the unknown shinobi had disappeared with Zabuza's seemingly dead body.

Kakashi had collapsed to the floor from the over use of the sharingan. As Tazuna had invited them back to his home Kakashi had informed Tazuna daughter, Tsunami that he would not be able to move for about a week due to the over use of the Sharingan.

**End of chapter 3. Please leave a review guys and thank you all for your support once again. **


	4. Chapter 4: Team 7 Training Week

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Naruto or the original characters or the original story that Kishimoto Masashi** **made.**

**Chapter Four: Team 7 Training Week**

Naruto had explained to Sakura discreetly as soon as they had entered Tazuna home when Sasuke had carried Kakashi to the bed that had been prepared by Tsunami.

"Sakura as you know Zabuza is not dead and just like Kakashi he will not be able to move for a week. So for now we are safe during that period." Naruto whispered in Sakura's ear.

As she felt his breath on her ear it had sent a tingling feeling throughout her body. She quickly snapped out of it as she leaned over towards Naruto.

"Naruto why did you not reveal that Zabuza was alive and that missing nin hunter was his accomplice?" Sakura whispered back so they were not heard by the others.

Naruto gazed towards Sakura momentarily as he thought on how to word it better.

"Listen so the future does not change too much I had to let things play out in a similar way. Do not worry soon the three of us will go up to Kakashi's room with the plan to see under his mask which will result in him waking up. As soon as he wakes up before we can, he will remember that missing nin hunters always dispose of the body right there on the spot instead of taking away the body." Naruto had whispered closely once again giving Sakura the same tingling feeling when she felt his breath brush her ear lobe.

Sasuke had come down the stairs as he noticed that his two comrades were standing rather close where usually Sakura would be several feet away from Naruto at all times.

"Hey Sasuke, how do you fancy we go upstairs and peak under Kakashi sensei mask? I've always wondered what he was hiding." Naruto said in a mischief tone as he grinned towards his friend.

Sasuke couldn't help but return a devilish smirk as he too had wondered what exactly had their sensei been hiding.

"Sure Naruto but we'll have to be discreet." Sasuke had said in a slightly excited tone.

Has the three excited genin made their way up the stairs and into Kakashi room. Naruto had just began to reach towards Kakashi's face before Kakashi had shot up into a sitting position on the bed as a trail of sweat trailed down from his eye brow.

This had startled the three pair though again Naruto had to pretend again to as Kakashi began mumbling to himself.

As Kakashi had began to reveal how Zabuza had survived, Sasuke had immediately realised how due to the needles it was possible for Zabuza to be alive.

They listened to Kakashi explain exactly how their skilled enough to easily use the non deadly needles to avoid hitting any organs but hit certain areas in the person body to cause momentarily death, exactly how the unknown shinobi had managed to trick Kakashi in believing that Zabuza was dead.

"While both I and Zabuza will be out of it for the next week, you three will focus on training until I am ready." Kakashi said.

The three genin had nodded towards their sensei though they were interrupted by Inari.

Inari had told them all they will die if they continue to stay here. Naruto kept his cool unlike in the past when he had lost his temper at the angry little child. Naruto knew Inari would be up in his room crying over the picture of his father though he was not his biological father.

An hour had passed before the three genin and Kakashi was stood out side in the woods as he was supported by wooden crutches. As he explained the concept of tree climbing to help improve their chakra control as it is usually the hardest to control when gathering chakra to your feet.

Kakashi had marked with a kunai up high on the tree for them to reach or surpass.

Naruto was going to let himself fail but he wanted Sasuke to notice him far quicker than he had before so as soon as they had channelled the chakra to his feet he had shot up to the very top of the tree.

Sasuke was shocked at how well Naruto had done and pushed himself with a large boost up the tree in determination as he managed to land just has high has Sakura had.

'Dammit! I need to reach the top like Naruto, he truly is a different person lately.' Thought Sasuke irritably.

'Naruto must of already known how to do this. No one could learn that amount of chakra control in one attempt, I must find out what exactly is going on with Naruto.' Kakashi had thought to himself with suspicion.

Naruto had jumped down before approaching the moody Uchiha. Sasuke stopped in mid run as he saw the grinning Uzumaki approaching him.

"What do you want dobe?". Sasuke asked in a envious tone.

"Hey if you don't want my help then fine but the sooner you know how to then the quicker we can start the real training." Naruto stated casually.

Naruto eyed Sasuke as Sasuke expression had totally changed to curiosity as he looked the other way feeling embarrassed to ask for Naruto's help but reluctantly asked.

"Fine could you please tell me how Naruto." Sasuke asked in an embarrassed tone.

Naruto had held his hands to Sasuke head as he showed him through memory on how he himself did it. A second had passed before he had let go of the Uchiha who had stared at him in shock.

"How did you even do that Naruto?" The Uchiha asked in dismay.

"Eh it's an Uzumaki jutsu I learned some time ago." Naruto lied casually.

Sasuke closed his eyes has he concentrated on the right amount of chakra before blasting off up towards the tree for his sixth attempt. Kakashi had watched at what Naruto had done.

Kakashi wasn't quite sure why he had touched the Uchiha's head like that after moments later Sasuke had shot up the tree to the very top just like Naruto had on his first try.

'What the hell is going on? They have both mastered this already?' Kakashi had thought to himself in confusion.

Sasuke began panting slightly as he watched Naruto run up the tree to sit beside him on the branch. Naruto had thrown a grin towards Sasuke who had returned it with a smirk.

"Thank you Naruto.. I would never had thought you was capable of doing these things. I'm sorry... for our arguments in the past." Said Sasuke in a joyful voice as he held out two fingers as a sign of harmony that their Iruka sensei had taught them. Naruto grinned in shock at Sasuke's gesture as he moved his fingers out to lock with Sasuke's has they smiled to each other.

Kakashi watched on at the two genin that began acknowledging each other as comrades.

'Their becoming closer already. Thank Kami for that as it was starting to get irritating with their squabbling. This training should of taken them a week though this has only taken them half a day.' Kakashi had thought to himself.

"Oi! You two and Sakura come here." Kakashi said loudly.

Naruto and Sasuke had hopped down together while Sakura had got off the ground from where she was sat bored as they stood in front of their sensei.

"Considering you three have completed your training early. I want you three to devise your own training to improve on a skill that you think you are most incapable of and I want you three to do it together." Kakashi had stated casually has he wobbled back with his crutch into Tazuna home.

The three genin had looked at each other awkwardly for the first few minutes in silence as each of them began to think exactly what was their weakest skill.

Naruto stepped forward as he thought of a skill he knew that all three of them weren't so good at, especially if he didn't use sage mode during it.

"I think a skill we will all need to train on, especially for the scenario we will come up against is fighting blind." Naruto stated towards his two friends.

Sakura looked at Naruto in confusion.

"Fighting blind? With our eyes closed?" Sakura asked in a puzzled voice.

"Yes that's exactly what Naruto meant and it's a great idea for us to train in that skill considering Zabuza hidden mist technique makes us blind anyway, this is a skill we could all help each other with." Sasuke said has he grinned towards his two friends.

"Well what are we waiting for guys?" Sakura said cheerfully at the three of them getting on perfectly as she took her defensive stance as she closed her eyes and focused on channelling chakra to her ears to hear better.

Naruto and Sasuke smirked towards each other at Sakura's comment before copying her as they fell into their defensive stance and channelled the chakra to their ears.

Five hours had passed has they began panting heavily when their new type of taijutsu training was interrupted as Tsunami had shouted out for them to have their dinner.

They had sat down at the table has they began to eat quickly due to their overwhelming hunger as the three of them was sat there with an identical grin on their faces. Kakashi looked up at the three in shock as he watched Sakura who was sat in the middle giggling away with Naruto and Sasuke in a way that had reminded him of Obito and Rin.

Kakashi had waited patiently for them to finish their dinner as Sakura had finished her second serving while Naruto and Sasuke had both just finished their third serving.

"So did you each find a skill you lacked?" Kakashi asked in interest as he gazed at the three of them.

"We all found the same skill to work on and help each other. We've made some progress with it already but really it was thanks to Naruto since he came up with it." Sasuke said in a delighted tone.

Kakashi was shocked to hear and see the happiness in Sasuke considering how broody the young Uchiha usually was as he read one of the chunin reports about Sasuke that had EMO written with a black circle around it on Sasuke's personality file. Kakashi's gaze fell onto Naruto who had merely grinned at Sasuke's remark.

"We are trying to learn how to fight without the use of our eye sight. It's the only defence we will have against Zabuza's hidden mist jutsu, even your sharingan finds it too hard to see through." Naruto said with a fierce tone.

"Well it looks like you three know what you are doing. I want you all to progress further in this training as of next week we'll be ready to battle Zabuza and his ally. It's dark now so no more training until tomorrow." Kakashi ordered.

Sasuke had said his good byes to everyone has he made his way to bed as he felt physically exhausted from today's training. Sakura had nudged Naruto to follow her as she made her way to her bedroom.

As Naruto had entered the small room Sakura was sleeping in, he watched her close and lock the door behind them before walking up to Naruto to stare him in the eye. Naruto could see the curiosity in her eyes.

"Naruto. Why did you choose to tell me about the future instead of Sasuke or even Kakashi? If you had told Kakashi I'm sure he would of benefited you more than me." Sakura asked softly.

Naruto merely smiled as he placed his right hand on Sakura's left shoulder.

"Well with Sasuke as you know he left the village to join Orochimaru in my past time line. If I had showed him the whole truth, including his brother then I would have no idea how he would take it and he would probably get himself killed if he tried anything. I didn't tell Kakashi because I figured at some point he will confront me about what's going on and I will be forced to reveal my secret. I chose you Sakura because you are my best friend and I hate the idea of waiting another three and half years for me to strike a close bond with you." Naruto said happily with a smile on his face.

Sakura placed her hand on top of Naruto's as she felt his hand start to pull away from her shoulder as she looked at him has she returned the smile.

"Well Naruto you don't have to worry about that. I already feel a lot closer with you than before, heck you're already my closest friend and you know I want our bond to grow too to an even bigger one than you have experienced." Said Sakura in a pleasant tone.

Naruto was sort of shocked at her last comment as he felt her move closer to wrap her hands around his waist to hug him. Naruto returned the hug as he placed his arms around her shoulders.

"You don't know how happy I am to hear that.. Sakura-chan." Whispered Naruto. Until now he had kept himself from using the word chan but now he felt it was easier to say.

The same tingling feelings had shot up and down Sakura's body has she felt his breath against her ear and the fact he had called her 'Sakura-chan'.

"I'm glad about that.. Naruto-kun." Said Sakura in a whisper as she looked him in the eye.

Naruto was gob smacked. Never in his life had he heard Sakura use the kun after his name but he felt himself mentally shake as he saw Sakura's head leaning towards his.

Naruto instantly began to move his head towards her too as their lips were mere cm's away from touching before the door had opened, quickly causing the young pair to break apart from their embrace as Tsunami stood in the doorway.

"Er.. did I interrupt anything?" Asked the embarrassed Tsunami. She saw both of their faces had turned several shades of red.

Naruto began chuckling as he scratched at the back of his head.

"Of course not! We were just practising a type of training that's all!" Naruto said in a weak tone.

Sakura had slapped her palm to her forehead at the pathetic excuse Naruto had used. Tsunami felt awful at interrupting the young genin as she realised this was probably about to be their first kiss.

"Sorry I would usually knock but I forgot to tell Sakura she was more than welcome to get any food or beverages from the fridge and that this door doesn't lock properly unless turned tightly." Said Tsunami in a guilty tone as she left the room after closing the door behind herself.

Sakura and Naruto stared at each other awkwardly.

"Well I'm going to try to get to sleep early so that I'm refreshed for our training tomorrow." Sakura said in an embarrassed voice.

"Me too. I'm so exhausted, see you soon Sakura!" Naruto said quickly as he left the room.

'He stopped saying chan at the end, oh it was a stupid idea anyway. What am I thinking? I'm meant to love Sasuke!' Sakura thought to herself before realising in shock that she didn't even say kun after his name.

* * *

It was the second morning and Sasuke could sense early on that something was up between Naruto and Sakura as they couldn't look each other in the eye as they spoke to each other in small sentences but he was glad that whatever it was, it didn't end up effecting their training. Eight full hours had passed before they had took their first break.

Naruto had laid backwards on the ground slightly breathing hard while Sakura was physically worn out and sweating profusely. Sasuke was equally as tired as he was still panting heavily but he had refused to quit training just yet so they had agreed to take a break.

"Hey Sasuke." Naruto said in a relaxed tone though he did not look directly at Sasuke as he continued to stare at the sky.

Sasuke looked over towards Naruto as he had sat down to lean his back against the tree.

"What dobe?" Answered Sasuke in a playful tone.

"When we get back home, us three should train this hard during the week. What do you think?" Asked Naruto in interest.

"Well I'm up for it but can Sakura keep up with us?" Sasuke asked as he looked over to the exhausted Sakura who had her eyes closed.

"Well I think she has fallen asleep so that kinda answers my question but we are a team so we have to make sure Sakura can keep up with us." Sasuke stated.

Naruto laughed loudly at this though he wasn't sure why.

"Eh we have no choice but to make sure she does though she seems determined just as much as we are. We're friends after all." Naruto said with joy.

Sasuke let the word friends sink into his head as he never would of thought he would want any friends in life but here he was buzzing with happiness at Naruto words.

"Friends? I think that's an understatement for us. Don't you think?" Sasuke said out loud without meaning to.

Naruto was shocked by this, never before had Sasuke acknowledged their friendship like that until the day of their battle at the valley of the end.

"Agreed. We'll make sure we have each other's backs no matter what!" Said Naruto with determination.

"No matter what." Sasuke repeated in the same determined tone.

* * *

It was the sixth day and Naruto said he wanted to take a walk during their break. He knew this was roughly the same time he would meet Haku in the beautiful meadow that he had originally met him.

Naruto had quickly laid down before pretending to sleep as he had awaited Haku to approach him to inform him he'll catch a cold if he remained out here. Once Haku had approached him.

Naruto and Haku had the same conversation that Naruto had with him in his past time line about training to become stronger to protect the person most important to him. Has Naruto played dumb during it and said his good byes when he noticed Sasuke approaching him. He knew he had pulled it off perfectly.

* * *

The seventh morning had finally arrived and the three genin training had improved drastically for each of them, though Sasuke was naturally better at this than Naruto and Sakura. They had continued to train right up to the evening time has they returned back for dinner in their dirty, sweaty states.

They each quickly finished their meals along with extra servings. Naruto finished his third bowl before patting his full stomach as he sighed in delight. Sasuke was tempted to relax just the same has Naruto but kept himself sat up right.

"Ah I can not wait to take bath! I feel so dirty!" Sakura had said in eagerness as she made her way up the stairs after she had thanked Tsunami for a perfect meal.

"You looking forward to tomorrow dobe?" Sasuke said in excitement.

"More than you know Sasuke. They won't know what hit them when they deal with us!" Naruto said in the same excited tone as Sasuke's has he thrust his fist into the air.

**End of chapter 4. Please leave a review as they make me happy! Thank you all for giving my second fanfic a chance and to show my appreciation I thought I'd post this before next Saturday!**


	5. Chapter 5:The Chance They Never Received

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Naruto or the original characters or the original story that Kishimoto Masashi** **made.**

**Author Note: I would just like people to know. This will not follow the manga after the chunin exams. From there it will be completely different. Every small change can cause a completely different scenario.**

**Chapter Five: The Chance They Had Never Received**

Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura had headed out early that morning for the bridge has they left Naruto to sleep. How ever it was a mere clone pretending to sleep as Naruto had summoned an additional five clones to hide themselves for when the two thugs would force their way into Tazuna home.

The clones had watched as the event took place as instructed until Inari had the courage to face the two thugs when they attempted to drag away his captured mother.

As soon as Inari had shouted at the two thugs, the clones had descended from the surrounding buildings to confront the surprised thugs. A minute had passed before the two thugs collapsed to the ground before rolling themselves into the lake to escape the clones to save themselves from receiving further broken limbs.

* * *

The original Naruto had laid under the unfinished bridge as he listened to the bridge experts being slaughtered. Everything inside him wanted more than anything to save them but he knew he couldn't let his location be known until Tazuna and his team arrived.

Thirty minutes had passed before he channelled his chakra to his ears as he listened to Zabuza and Kakashi talking. He listened carefully as Haku and Sasuke had began to battle.

As the time passed by Sasuke had ended up with the advantage though Haku took it up a notch by using the demonic ice mirror jutsu thanks to his ice release kekkai genkai.

Naruto knew the time was right has he jumped out with his loud entrance. As he rushed in to stand beside Sasuke like he had done in the past, he had listened to Sasuke insult him on his intelligence for entering the jutsu before Sasuke had perform the grand ball fire jutsu which had not effected Haku iced mirrors in the slightest.

Naruto had to let himself and Sasuke be attacked over and over again by Haku's needles. This is where Sasuke had finally unlocked the power of the Sharingan due to the stress of the battle.

Zabuza activated the blinding mist again as it began to cut off everyone's vision. As the battle continued, Kakashi realised Zabuza would aim for Tazuna. Just as Kakashi had almost reached Tazuna, he had witnessed Sakura with her eyes closed flip up into the air to deliver a strong punch directly into Zabuza's nose, giving Kakashi time to land a kick to Zabuza's stomach to send him back several feet.

Naruto kept himself to the ground as he felt the needles in his back.

As soon as Haku had targeted the seemingly unconscious Naruto to lure Sasuke in his trap. Haku's plan worked perfectly as Sasuke had rushed with blinding speed to protect Naruto from the impact of Haku's attack. Sasuke had managed to land a strong kick to Haku's ribs in the process just as Haku's needles had pierced Sasuke's body all over.

Naruto quickly pushed himself off the ground before holding Sasuke in his arms.

"I hated you.." Sasuke said in an exhausted breath.

"But.. but.. why.. why me! I NEVER ASKED FOR YOUR HELP!" Naruto shouted in a fake desperate tone.

Even though he knew Sasuke would be fine, it still hurt him to see his friend so hurt and the emotions he had felt in the past in this situation had began to tingle throughout his body.

"I don't know.. my body just moved on it's own.. idiot." Sasuke said in a tired voice.

"That man.. My brother. I told him I wouldn't die until I killed him." Said Sasuke in a whisper before collapsing.

Naruto caught Sasuke before gently laying the Uchiha down as he channelled some of the tailed beast chakra into Sasuke's body to heal some of the critical wounds. Even though he knew Sasuke would be fine regardless, there was no need for him to be too beaten up.

Naruto had to let a slight amount of the tailed beasts chakra radiate through his body since his younger body didn't have the speed his older body had. Naruto's eyes turned into the same red slits due to this as he dashed towards Haku.

Before Haku had time to say the same line as he did in the past. Naruto quickly secured his fingers around Haku's neck before using blinding speed to smash Haku through each individual mirror.

Once the last mirror was smashed Naruto had released his grip on Haku's neck before swinging a powerful punch into's Haku's face, sending the young boy flying as his mask had broken into dozens of pieces at the sheer power of Naruto's impact.

Unlike before, this time Haku remained unconscious. Naruto had noticed the mist beginning to clear as he looked on to see Kakashi's ninja dogs gripping onto Zabuza with their teeth as blood trickled down Zabuza's legs and arms from the wounds of the dogs sharp teeth.

Naruto walked over towards Haku before tying the young boy's arms together. Naruto quickly summoned one clone, the clone already knew the plan Naruto had formed. The clone quickly use the transformation jutsu to look identical to Haku as the clone sped off towards Kakashi and Zabuza.

As Kakashi sped up towards Zabuza with the famous chidori jutsu active as his right hand was surrounded by lightning. Kakashi quickly shot his hand forward to pierce Zabuza, only to be intercepted by the Naruto clone who still had Haku's identity.

Naruto kept the chakra running through his clone continuously to prevent the clone from dispersing as Kakashi pulled the seemingly dead Haku away several feet with himself as Zabuza had used his blade to try to cut through both of them.

Sakura watched as she believed that was the real Haku, just like the memory she had been shown.

'Where are you Naruto?' Sakura had thought to herself as she knew Sasuke was still alive.

Kakashi and Zabuza began to battle again though Zabuza was clearly being outclassed as Kakashi had intercepted every one of Zabuza's attacks and responding each time with a blow of his own.

As Zabuza swung his giant blade towards Kakashi, Kakashi had parred the attack with his torso against Zabuza's wrist before stabbing a kunai into Zabuza's left arm.

"Now both arms are useless Zabuza. You won't even be able to perform a seal any more." Kakashi stated.

Both Kakashi and Zabuza had turned towards the new voice that taunted Zabuza.

"How disappointing, you are getting your ass kicked Zabuza." Sniggered Gatou with an army of thugs behind him.

"What are you and all your men doing here Gatou?" Zabuza asked suspiciously.

"Zabuza I will have you killed here. Plans have changed.. well this was the plan from the beginning. I never planned to pay you anyway." Gatou stated with menace in his tone.

Zabuza glared at Gatou has the rich tyrant had spilled his entire plan to Zabuza on double crossing him.

"Hiring ninjas is too expensive, though hiring missing nin like yourself is easy enough has I can dispose of you without any consequences and I get to keep my money. Good plan huh? Honestly though I was worried it would be different this time as you are Zabuza, the devil of the hidden mist. What a joke! You are nothing but a cute little baby devil. We can easily kill you now!" Screamed Gatou in a fit of laughter.

Naruto appeared behind Kakashi as if he was always there. Gatou walked over before booting the seemingly dead Haku in the face.

"This one squeezed my arm until it had broke." Gatou said with anger in his tone.

Naruto let the memory swim through his mind as he remembered his words towards Zabuza that had sparked the emotions to surface through Zabuza's cold heart.

Zabuza tried desperately to make Naruto shut up so he could keep his mind and heart clear of all thoughts of Haku but the annoying little brat kept shouting at him making it impossible to not think about Haku's smile as it surrounded his mind with many pictures of their times together. Finally Zabuza had felt the warm liquid in his eyes that he had not felt since he was ten years old and forced to kill his friends.

"Kid.. You don't need to say no more." Zabuza said in a choked up voice.

Zabuza had let his heart open to Naruto about Haku before requesting to borrow Naruto's kunai.

"No." Naruto said solemnly as he glared in Gatou's direction.

Zabuza stared blankly at Naruto, did he still believe Zabuza would attack him he thought to himself.

Naruto summoned four clones before they rushed towards the army of thugs.

"What you doing you fool? Naruto get back here, there are too many of them!" Kakashi shouted towards his student.

Naruto and his clones had stopped several metres away from the mass of thugs.

"Heh scared are we kid?" Gatou taunted towards Naruto.

Naruto and his four clones had an identical grin as all five of them began to perform several seals.

**"Fire Release: Grand Ball Fire Jutsu!"** Shouted one of the clones as he breathed the fire out towards Gatou and his men. The other three clones and Naruto had activated their jutsu's at the exact same time.

**"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu!" **A huge water dragon head had shot out from Naruto's hands as he produced the water with his own chakra.

**"Wind Release: Wind Cannon Jutsu!" **Three large balls of wind had blasted out from Naruto's hands.

**"Earth Release: Earth Boulder Bruiser!" **Two large boulders had broke off from the ground as it soared out towards them.

**"Lightning Release: Lightning Dancing Ferrets!" **A dozen miniature lightning ferrets had ran towards Gatou and his quivering men as the five jutsu's had hurdled towards Gatou has he tried to push through his men to survive the inevitable attack but it made no difference as the explosion of each jutsu impact had killed every single one of the evil men.

Naruto's clones had dispersed along with the fake Haku as Naruto turned round with a grin on his face.

'He can use all five elements? I can use up to four but even that is rare for a jonin to do, just what is up with your son sensei? I have to get to the bottom of this.' Kakashi thought intently to himself.

Zabuza was shocked at the power this brat had displayed, though his attention was diverted has he watched Haku's dead body disappear into a puff of smoke.

Naruto slapped his hands together before four clones had appeared, two clones each supporting two kids in their arms.

"Sasuke will be fine though he will need medical care. Haku is perfectly fine, it was my own clone that Kakashi sensei had struck." Naruto said with a cheerful tone as the clones had carried Haku towards his ally. Zabuza could not physically move his arms to hold Haku but he sat down for the clones to rest Haku on to his lap.

The clones had dispersed as Naruto approached Zabuza.

"You have a choice Zabuza. You and Haku can compensate for your sins by first helping the folk around here and continue in the correct path or if you have no desire to change your life style. I will be forced to kill you here and I will kill Haku if he decides the same thing but we both know no matter what, Haku will follow you down any path no matter how evil it is." Naruto stated in a strict tone.

Naruto had waited for Zabuza to answer though the missing nin had kept his gaze fixed upon the unconscious Haku. A minute had passed before Zabuza looked up to Naruto with determined eyes.

"I will try to compensate for all the evil I have done to this world." Zabuza stated in a clear confident voice.

Naruto placed his hands on either side of Zabuza head to use his and the tailed beast power to sense whether the evil intent was there so that he didn't have to reveal his bijuu mode to detect it.

Naruto could see the hatred still in Zabuza's heart but the evil was not there, simply the heart break at the emotion of losing Haku and the answer Zabuza had given was true.

"I know you speak of the truth. You can leave now though you will have to understand even if you help the folk round here, they may hate you forever due to the murder of their friends and family. You understand this?" Naruto said blankly.

Zabuza merely nodded as he understood. Kakashi had walked over with Sasuke in his arms as Sakura and Tazuna had stood by his side.

"Naruto it's all well to hope Zabuza could repent for his sins but we can not simply leave that by chance, we should end his li.." Kakashi was interrupted as Naruto held his hand out to stop him.

"Kakashi sensei. I know you will be questioning me later. So for now let me just tell you that I know Zabuza is telling the truth. You have no choice but to believe me until I explain everything to you later. I need you all to keep this from Sasuke.. I do not wish for him to know how capable I am." Naruto said in a pleading tone.

Kakashi really couldn't tell what to do any more but simply nodded his head in agreement has he began to walk on with Sasuke in his hands as Tazuna had followed pursuit, though Sakura had remained standing several feet away from Naruto and Zabuza.

"This is good bye Zabuza, though I hope our paths cross again in the future." Naruto said with a smile as he held out his hand.

Zabuza merely shrugged off the bandages around his face as he revealed his sharp teeth as he smiled towards Naruto as he gaze fell to his arms.

Naruto looked down before chuckling to himself as he pulled away his hand.

"Oh right, I forgot about your arms!" Naruto looked round to make sure Kakashi was gone before activating his bijuu mode.

Sakura was wide eyed as she stared at Naruto's new features. Though she had seen in his memories of what he he had looked like when using the tailed beast power, it was still shocking to see it up close. Zabuza began sweating in shock at the power he could sense radiating out of Naruto.

Naruto walked over before placing his bright hands on to Zabuza's arms has he let Kurama take over. Zabuza immediately felt the wounds closing on his arms and some of his chakra restoring back as Naruto pulled back as he deactivated his bijuu mode.

"Farewell Zabuza!" Naruto said cheerfully as he walked off quickly towards Sakura before pulling her by her hand towards Tazuna house.

'Heh that brat is something special. Just what power is this kid packing?' Zabuza thought to himself before being interrupted as Haku had stirred in his arms.

Haku looked up towards the bloodied Zabuza who was strangely enough smiling towards him.

"Za.. Zabuza did we win?" Zabuza had said in a tired tone.

Zabuza grin became bigger as he clutched Haku tighter.

"Win? I think we won big time Haku. Though I'll tell you everything back at our hide out my friend." Zabuza said in a gentle tone.

Haku had froze in shock as Zabuza began to carry him. Never had Zabuza spoke to him so nicely and let a lone refer to him as a friend. Haku could not help but feel the warm tears spilling over his cheeks from the happiness that was radiating from his heart.

* * *

Naruto still had hold of Sakura's hand as they made their way towards Tazuna home. Sakura felt relieved that the battle was over and she felt incredibly nervous as this was as close as Naruto and herself had got since their almost kiss.

* * *

The next day they had stood at the completed bridge with Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari has they was getting ready to head back to Konoha. Naruto and Inari began to cry as they bid farewell to each other.

* * *

Back at Konoha, Naruto woke up from his new double bed. He was glad the clones had managed to finish decorating his apartment with new furniture. Naruto got dressed in his new clothes, well it was new but to him he felt back to his normal self as he sported the same orange and black jacket as he did in his late teens along with his orange pants.

Naruto jumped out of his window to meet Sasuke and Sakura as he knew it would be another three hours before Kakashi had arrived. Has they chatted along about their training and their improvements, time had flown by before the three genin felt Kakashi's presence.

"Sorry guys, I got lost!" Kakashi said casually as he scratched his head.

"Got lost my ass." Mumbled Sakura to herself.

Kakashi looked up as he noticed a signal for him to make his report.

"I have to go submit a report, see you soon guys." Kakashi said before disappearing.

"Eh I'm gonna go home and work on a jutsu or two, you two coming?" Sasuke asked without looking back as he began to pace slowly towards his home.

"Not today Sasuke, I'm going to take it easy but tomorrow I'll swing by!" Said Naruto in a cheerful tone.

"Me too Sasuke I have to help my dad with the new furniture." Sakura had lied casually.

"Hn. That's okay, see you both soon." Sasuke said blankly as he made his way home.

Sakura looked at Naruto awkwardly as she swayed from side to side.

"Naruto can I come by your home in an hour?" Sakura asked nervously.

"Sure Sakura, you can.." Naruto was interrupted as he noticed the obvious fake rock.

"Konohamaru! Get out of there, that disguise is pathetic!" Naruto shouted as he pointed towards the fake square rock.

Konohamaru yanked off the disguise as he stood with his two friends grinning.

"That's the man who I view as my rival." Stated Konohamaru as he pointed towards Naruto.

As Naruto and Konohamaru began to discuss about his new goggles he was sporting the same goggles Naruto used to wear during his pranking days. As Konohamaru mentioned about playing ninja, Sakura had interrupted them with her comment.

"Ninja playing ninja?" Sakura said in a dull tone.

"Hey bro who is this girl?" Konohamaru asked as he pointed towards Sakura who stood there looking towards them all blankly.

'She is looking at him as if she is nervous?' Konohamaru thought to himself before slamming his fist into the palm of his hand.

"Not bad bro, she's yours." Konohamaru said with a sleazy grin as he used his pinky finger to imply they were a couple.

"EHHHH!" Sakura had shouted. She didn't want the same awkward feeling as before to surface between her and Naruto. Sakura leant forward with a fake angry expression to give the impression she was about to chase Konohamaru, resulting in the young boy running away, only to bump into a stranger.

Kankuro looked down at the brat who had bumped into him before gripping Konohamaru by the scruff of his collar as he lifted the boy in to the air as he looked at the young kid in the eyes.

"That hurt you little shit! The boss won't be back in a while so I can teach you a lesson." Said Kankuro in an irritated tone as he watched Konohamaru swinging his legs frantically.

Instantly Naruto had appeared by Kankuro side as he gripped Kankuro's left wrist before applying chakra into his own right hand to tighten the grip. Almost immediately Kankuro had let go of Konohamaru before letting out a yelp in pain.

"It's not nice to pick on little children, especially as this particular kid is the third Hokage's grandson and my student. In future try to pick on someone in your own age group instead of getting your kicks by bullying kids." Naruto said in a stern voice.

"Sure, whatever just please let go of my wrist." Kankuro said in a wheezy voice.

Naruto let go of the puppet master's wrist before turning away. Instantly Kankuro had smiled to himself as he swung his right fist in Naruto's direction, only to be intercepted by a rock that had hit his wrist hard in a sensitive spot.

Kankuro looked up towards the direction the stone had come from to see a raven haired boy sitting on a branch.

"What are you bastards doing in our village?" Sasuke said in an annoyed tone as he continued to bounce rocks in the air.

**The end. Please leave a Review as I would very much appreciate it! :)**

**Okay okay from now chapters will be posted every Saturday and maybe occasionally I may post an extra chapter as I like to have five rough versions of chapters a head of the current posted ones and at the moment I've wrote up to chapter 14 but of course they are very messy :).**


	6. Chapter 6: The Chunin Exams?

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Naruto or the original characters or the original story that Kishimoto Masashi made.**

**Chapter Six: The Chunin Exams?**

"Another punk ass. I see the hidden leaf village are full of them." Said Kankuro bitterly as he rubbed his wrist.

"Get lost kid." Sasuke replied casually.

"Kid? Get your ass down here and I show you who the kid is!" Kankuro retorted back.

As Kankuro began to pull the bindings from his puppet, Gaara had made his presence known.

"Stop it. You are an embarrassment to our village." Gaara said blankly as he stood upside down from the branch on the other side of the tree from Sasuke.

Sasuke had glared at the red haired kid who was about his own age. Gaara had disappeared through his sand only to reappear between his siblings.

"We are from the hidden sand village and arrived here for the chunin selection exam, don't you guys know anything?" Temari asked as she stared at their confused expressions.

Sasuke jumped down to stand with his team as he analysed the sand genin.

"What is your name?" Sasuke asked.

Gaara expression remained blank as he stared at the leaf genin.

"I am Gaara of the desert, I am also interested in both of your names." Gaara asked as he looked at Naruto.

"I am Uchiha Sasuke and my friend is Uzumaki Naruto." Sasuke stated.

Gaara turned away instantly before disappearing as his siblings followed without further discussion.

"Ah it's a good thing you came Sasuke. That one with the sand gourd looks powerful, don't you think?" Naruto said cheerfully as he placed both hands behind his head.

Sasuke looked towards his best friend with a smirk on his face.

"Definitely. This will be interesting! I hope Kakashi puts us forward for the chunin exams. I'm glad I turned back, anyway this is for you." Sasuke had handed over a small box to Naruto.

Naruto opened up the small box as it revealed a headband polishing kit. The corner of Naruto's mouth spread right up to his ear's practically at his present.

"Thanks Sasuke! but what is this for?" Naruto said in a happy tone.

"Eh you are always getting it dirty during training and it's just my way of saying thanks for helping me with my fire affinity. Anyway I've gotta go, see you two soon!" Sasuke said casually as he leaped away.

"Bro you really are amazing! You need to teach me more stuff soon!" Konoha said has he gleamed with starry eyes at his role model.

"Heh. I'll teach you some stuff soon, I promise!" Naruto said as he grinned towards his little friend.

"Naruto I'll see you in an hour okay?" Sakura said as she reminded him.

Naruto turned to look at her as they exchanged smiles.

"Sure Sakura, see you soon! bye guys." Naruto said as he waved good bye before jogging off towards his home.

'He really looks better in his new attire and is he... taller?' Sakura had thought to herself since their first mission Naruto had been the shortest but now he was probably just about a cm or two taller than her.

Naruto arrived at his home as he crashed onto his sofa before closing his eyes to visit his friends. As Naruto arrived to the beautiful scenery he was greeted by a grinning Kurama. Naruto eyed his friend who still remained in his smaller version like the others as he made his way over.

"Eh what's with that killer grin of yours?" Naruto said suspiciously.

"Well that Sakura girl had noticed but clearly you haven't. Brainless has usual brat." Kurama said with a chuckle.

"What you say! Huh Sakura? What you mean?" Naruto asked in a confused tone.

"We did you a solid by making you slightly taller boy. It's weird seeing from your eyes that other kunoichis are taller than you." Son Goku said as he walked over to stand beside Kurama.

"Hmm I'm so used to being taller than Sakura that I never even noticed, it really is weird being a kid again. Thank you though guys." Naruto said cheerfully.

"Sorry to interrupt you three but Naruto-kun you are becoming quite skilled in your five elements since the beginning of your training. Maybe after the chunin exams if we feel you are ready, you maybe able to attempt to try combine some of your elements together." Matatabi said in a quiet voice as she approached Naruto from behind before standing by his side.

"I never really thought of that before but anything to improve myself further is a must. Am I able to train in combining my elements in here still when I'm asleep?" Naruto had asked since this is the only place he could really train properly without being detected.

"Of course Naruto-kun. As we have said before, all principles that apply on the outside world with training, applies back here apart from any physical training of course such as heavy weights and your speed." Matatabi had answered.

"Looks like the girl is almost here already, get going Naruto." Kurama said before Naruto had felt himself being mentally pushed out.

'Sakura seemed nervous earlier, ah I bet it was Konohamaru stupid remark about her being my girlfriend. I really hope Sakura doesn't get freaked out by it.' Naruto thoughts were interrupted as he heard a knock on his door.

Naruto made his way to the door as he opened it before feeling himself mentally shake a little at the sight of Sakura.

"Y..you cut your hair?" Naruto said in a shocked tone as he stood wide eyed at Sakura's short hair. The same styled hair she had kept ever since she was forced to cut her hair during the chunin exam.

_Sakura sat at her dressing table as she stared into the mirror. Without looking down she let her hand feel through her draw as she slipped her finger and thumb through the cold metal hoops of the scissors._

_She focused on herself before breathing deeply as she began to snip away at her long pink bubble gum hair. The only sound she could hear was the snipping of her hair before finishing up as she eyed herself in the mirror at her new hair._

_"Just like the memory." She had whispered to herself. Sakura made her way into her bathroom to wash her hair to rid any lose hair before using a hair dryer as she focused on herself in the mirror once again._

_'This is the first day to a new Sakura.' Sakura had thought to herself while straightening her clothes and making her way to leap from her window, so that she did not have to face her parents with their endless questions on why she had cut her long hair that she had focused on growing since she was a small child._

Sakura had kept a smile on her face as she let herself in by walking around Naruto. Naruto quickly shook his head before closing the door behind him as he followed Sakura to his sofa.

'Wow this place looks really fancy.' Sakura had thought to herself when Naruto had sat by her as her eyes had scanned the expensive black sofas in his living room along with his new kitchen and ornaments.

"Yes I cut my hair. Ever since the day you showed me what our future might be, my new hair as been picking at my brain... so I cut my hair. Do you like it?" Sakura said as she looked Naruto in the eye as she felt her hair subconsciously.

Naruto looked straight into her emerald eyes.

"I've always loved your hair ever since I first saw the change in my previous time line." Naruto said nervously.

"Thank you Naruto. This wasn't the only reason why I wanted to come round. I just thought maybe it be nice to spend more time together." Sakura said casually.

"That's okay, I would love that! Though the three of us spend most of our time together anyway." Naruto said as he relaxed into the sofa more.

"Baka! Naruto sometimes, just ah. I meant just you and me, it feels like we never get to hardly." Sakura said with an irritated tone as she could not believe how dumb Naruto could truly be at times.

"Ah sorry Sakura! We could watch a movie if you like?" Naruto said cheerfully.

"Sure I'd love to! I'll let you pick what movie we can watch." Sakura said casually.

Naruto gave Sakura a sleazy grin which resulted in her raising an eye brow at him as he moved over to close the black blinds and crimson curtains to darken the room completely as he moved carefully in the dark to prepare the horror movie.

As he sat down on the sofa he looked over to Sakura as the opening credits played as he watched her expression change from curiosity to fright as she realised it was the new horror movie that had been displayed in most of the stores recently and horror films was clearly no friend to her.

Several minutes had passed before the first victim had been dragged away into the darkness by an unknown monster before several piece of the woman's body had been ripped out and thrown out from the darkness.

Sakura already began to cower into the corner of the sofa as she pushed her knees up to her chest before wrapping her arms around her legs.

"Naruto it's really dark in here. Can we at least turn the lamp on?" Sakura said in an edgy tone as she looked over the other side of the sofa at Naruto.

"Nah horror movies are at it's scariest when it's really dark." Naruto had answered with a smirk though his eyes remained glued to the tv.

Thirty minutes had passed before the movie was onto it's eighth victim. Sakura watched wide eyed in fear as the monster was ripping at the guy's torso from it's own perspective.

Naruto looked over as he grinned to himself at Sakura who began to inch her way closer towards Naruto without breaking her gaze from the movie. Naruto slyly pushed off his headband that was sat at the table beside him as the metal part of it had hit the floor causing the clang to echo the room.

Immediately Sakura had cried out before latching herself onto Naruto as she sat on his lap with her arms clutching around his shoulders as she buried her head into his neck like a koala bear. This caused Naruto to burst out laughing which had resulted in Sakura to raise her fist in the air before crashing it down upon Naruto's head to shut him up.

Naruto immediately began to rub his head before looking up at Sakura who looked slightly blank.

"Sakura?" Naruto said in a curious tone before realising why the sudden change in Sakura as he looked at her properly at the realisation that she was indeed straddling him.

Sakura looked down at her friend as she felt the same feelings resurface from the time they were in her room at Tazuna house before being interrupted by Tsunami. Sakura felt her left hand softly touch Naruto's right cheek causing the Uzumaki boy to sigh at her touch as she had lowered her head slowly towards his.

Naruto had placed his hands on her waist as he moved his head slightly up to meet Sakura's lips with his own. Their lips had barely grazed each other's before a loud bang on the window caused them to snap their heads towards the window before the two genin fell backwards over the sofa as they looked at the scary shadow behind the curtain.

Naruto had prepared himself to fight the unknown intruder as he raised his hand backwards for Sakura to stay down as he walked over slowly before pulling back the curtains to reveal a crouching Kakashi on his windowsill.

'Dammit!' Sakura had thought to herself as this was the second time her first kiss was about to happen had been interrupted again.

"Eh what the hell are you doing here? I have a door you know!" Naruto had moaned towards Kakashi has he pulled open the window to let his sensei in.

Kakashi had stepped inside Naruto's newly furnished apartment as he looked at the new furniture, though his eye had immediately darted towards Sakura who had pushed herself off the ground with her new styled hair cut.

"Did I interrupt something?" Kakashi said as his eye displayed joy at the two red faced genins.

"No but even if there was something to interrupt, then yes you would have! What is it you wanted sensei?" Sakura said with irritation.

"I've just passed by Sasuke's to give him his application for the chunin exam considering I have nominated you three for it and I had come to your house next Sakura but your parents informed me that you were in your room last before disappearing." Kakashi said suspiciously as he handed the two applications to the two genin.

They took the applications from their sensei without saying a word which caused Kakashi to be slightly shocked as he was expecting more excitement.

"You two seem like you were already expecting these. Naruto you have yet to explain to me about Zabuza and the fact you can use five elements just like the third Hokage." Kakashi stated in a demanding tone.

Naruto and Sakura looked to each other before Naruto broke his gaze and looked back towards Kakashi.

"Kakashi I will show you everything." Naruto said in a blank voice as he activated his bijuu mode.

Kakashi could feel the overwhelming power. Not once in his life time had he felt a fraction of this power that was radiating out of the glowing Naruto as he watched the golden chakra lick at Naruto's body like fire.

"Kakashi for me to show you, I'll need to place my hands on your head." Naruto said with a serious expression.

'Just like he did with Zabuza.' Kakashi thought to himself as he stood still as Naruto pressed his hands on either side of his head.

Sakura watched on as Kakashi stared out wide eyed as she knew Naruto was showing him the same memories that she had been shown. A minute or so had passed before Naruto had let go off Kakashi as Kakashi looked down towards the grinning Naruto who had deactivated his bijuu mode.

"No one else can know, especially Sasuke. Only you, the third and Sakura know of this and I can not afford to let anyone else know about this any time soon." Naruto stated as he looked at Kakashi who still had a shock expression plastered on his face.

"Obito's.. alive? Naruto we should strike at him with the element of surprise!" Kakashi said in a desperate tone.

"No. The future has to stay on it's course and we may not approach them, though as you know Itachi and Kisame will come for me soon." Naruto said with slight excitement in his voice.

"I will need to discuss this with the third but I will follow your approach on this from now on. You are right about letting the future stay on the same course that you have experienced but you should know there will changes in this timeline that you may not have encountered in your previous one." Kakashi said with certainty.

"You say that has if you already know something sensei?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

"You've just shown me what had happened in your time line Naruto and for some unknown reason events have already changed. Your chunin exams you have experienced will perhaps be different to the one you are going to experience. As far as I know in your time line there was only leaf, sound and sand genin in this exam but in this time line, a more variety of genin will be participating in this exam." Kakashi said.

Naruto expression was clearly one that was puzzled.

'What could of happened to change the chunin exams like this? We've not even had any encounters with the other villages yet.' Naruto thought to himself.

"It doesn't matter! I know things won't be entirely the same, I just need to get the same results!" Naruto said with confidence.

"I believe you can do this Naruto. I need to speak to the third now but tomorrow you know where you three are heading. When you do pass and begin the exams, take caution. You might have a great amount of power but in this exam you need to realise you won't be able to use it." Kakashi stated before disappearing into a puff of smoke.

Naruto turned towards Sakura who had been gazing towards her fidgeting hands.

"Sakura don't worry about the chunin exams. There is nothing that can be thrown at us that we can not handle!" Naruto said positively as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

Sakura raised her eyes to look at Naruto as she felt his touch.

"I'm.. not so worried about the chunin exam." Sakura said blankly.

"What is it?" Naruto asked as he realised what it might be.

"I think we both know what it is Naruto." Sakura said has she closed the space between them as she looked into his blue eyes.

Naruto gulped before leaning towards Sakura before being interrupted as Sakura pressed her left index finger to his lips. Naruto instantly felt his heart sank as he began to rush through thoughts of Sakura rejecting him though he was interrupted in his own thoughts.

"I'm not saying no. Just not yet Naruto, You know I like you a lot." Sakura said shyly as she maintained eye contact with Naruto.

Naruto couldn't help but let out a big grin as he felt Sakura's finger move from his lip.

"I guess you know my feelings for you too Sakura. You actually don't know how long I've wanted to hear that from you." Naruto said with excitement.

Sakura smiled towards Naruto, finally happy that their feelings were out in the open.

"You can take me out on our first date after the chunin exams." Sakura said as she winked towards her more than friend now as she walked out of the apartment with a wave.

"OOOOOOOOOOOAH hell yes!" Naruto said loudly to himself.

* * *

The next morning had arrived has team seven had met up outside the building where they were to hand in their application. They made their way into the building and turned round the corner just in time to witness a kunoichi who Naruto knew was Tenten, receiving a back hand from one of the two boys standing outside a door as they prevented anyone from entering.

"You will let me pass through and also remove the surroundings, created with genjutsu." Sasuke said with a smirk.

The one who had struck Tenten smiled towards the last remaining leaf Uchiha.

"Ah, so you noticed eh?" Replied the unknown boy.

"Of course we noticed! This isn't the third floor, this is the second floor!" Sakura answered with a tone of confidence.

"Very good but all you did.. was to see through it!" Cried out the boy as he swung a kick towards Sasuke who began to deliver his own kick. How ever both Sasuke and the boy's kick was stopped by Rock Lee as he sped in between them to grip each other's leg.

"Baka! You were the one complaining about drawing attention to ourselves and here you are taking everyone's attention to yourself you fool!" Neji had responded in anger to Lee's interference.

Lee had sighed to himself before making his way to Sakura. Naruto immediately rolled his eyes as he remembered this all too well.

"Hi, I'm Rock Lee and I know you are the beautiful Haruno Sakura. Please go out with me and I will protect you with my last dying breath!" Lee said as he did the nice guy pose with his teeth shining bright as he smiled and his thumb posed up towards Sakura.

"Ew. No." Sakura stated clearly.

"Hey you, what's your name?" Neji had asked as he pointed towards Sasuke.

"When you ask someone's name, it is polite to mention yours before hand." Sasuke replied casually.

"Heh. A rookie are we? How old are you kid." Neji asked arrogantly.

"None of your business." Sasuke said in annoyance.

Sakura quickly gripped both Naruto's and Sasuke's hand has she pulled them along.

"Come on let's get going." Sakura said excitedly.

"Eh you know I don't like to be pulled." Sasuke said in a bored tone.

As they entered the room they were interrupted by Lee.

"Hey, you in the blue top. I want to fight you right here!" Lee stated as he stared towards the dark haired genin.

Naruto watched on as the taijutsu master and Sasuke introduced each other before Lee brought his focus on to Sakura. Lee winked towards Sakura, causing the kunoichi to cringe physically.

As Lee began to blow kisses towards Sakura's direction. She had jerked her body violently to dodge them before smacking her head against the floor to dodge the last one successfully.

"Are you done assaulting my friend?" Sasuke said with annoyance at the green spandex uniformed kid.

"How mean.. I'm ready to experience the power of Konoha's most elite clan!" Lee said enthusiastically.

**The end of chapter 6. Thank you for all for your support everyone :) Please leave a review as I know if I'm doing well and they motivate me more to hear what you guys think of my story!**

**Any questions then pm me. Chapters posted every Saturday and maybe extra chapters are posted before hand if I feel motivated enough.**


	7. Chapter 7: The Test

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Naruto, the original characters, or the original story that Kishimoto Masashi made. storngly . gasped**

**Chapter Seven: The Tests**

As Naruto watched on, he kept himself from interfering with Sasuke's battle with Lee. Despite befriending the Uchiha, he knew Sasuke needed to experience this blow to his pride from Lee.

Confidently, Sasuke charged towards Lee, intending to end this fight quick. However, before he could attack, Lee vanished from sight, only to reappear right in front of Sasuke.

**"Leaf Spinning Wind!"** Lee shouted as he dropped to the floor using his left arm to prop himself off the ground. After aiming his right kick into Sasuke's right shoulder, Lee discovered that Sasuke deflected the attack with both hands in time in order to avoid any serious damage to his shoulder.

Instantly, Lee held two fingers up to his face, giving the impression that he was about to perform a jutsu, before slamming an undetectable punch straight to the Uchiha's face.

The punch managed to send Sasuke flying several feet backwards and caused blood to trickle down his mouth. After landing hard on his back, Sasuke gasped for much needed air before swiftly standing back on his feet and activating his Sharingan.

After several exchanges of blows between the two genin, Lee gradually began to prove to Sasuke that the Sharingan is outright useless in a taijutsu match if the user's body is unable to keep up to their opponent's speed.

With blinding speed, Lee appeared in front of Sasuke before leaning down to swing his left leg upright to boot Sasuke under his chin. Once again being caught off guard, Sasuke was sent flying towards the ceiling.

As Lee prepares to execute the Primary Lotus, a forbidden jutsu taught to him by his sensei, he feels an unexpected hand clamp down on his right shoulder.

Lee turned his head slightly to look into the blue eyes of a smiling, blonde haired genin, whom prevented him from delivering the final blow to Sasuke. All the while, Sakura quickly grabbed Sasuke as he came crashing towards the ground.

"It would be unwise to attack any further. Rock Lee, was it?" Naruto asked in a fake curious voice as he held out his hand towards the green spandex genin.

Lee smiled pleasantly towards the friendly genin and extended his own hand to shake Naruto's.

"I believe your name is Uzumaki Naruto?" Lee asked in a genuinely pleasant tone.

"Indeed…" Naruto paused as Guy and his turtle nin had appeared by the door.

"Lee you best hurry up and hand in your application!" Guy said sternly as he looked towards the other genin that belonged to his rival.

"Hey, you kids. You are Kakashi's students. Are you not?" Guy asked.

"Yes, how do you know Kakashi?" Sasuke asked as he stared at the jonin that greatly resembled Lee in so many ways…including the green spandex.

Guy instantly appeared behind Sasuke and Sakura while Lee and Naruto watched on.

"People sometimes refer to us as eternal rivals." Guy stated as he grinned to himself.

"That's lovely and all Guy, but we need to be heading towards the classroom." Naruto said this as Sakura pulled Sasuke by his trembling arm and followed Naruto out of the room. After departing from the room and distancing themselves from the taijutsu duo, Naruto turned to face Sasuke.

"You know Sasuke, that guy only won due to the hard training he must be doing. Did you see the state of his hands?" Naruto said, knowing all too well that Sasuke's trail of thought would be on the severe bruising and cuts that he saw on the taijutsu genin's hands.

"I guess we just need to train that much harder to win this chunin exam. It sure is looking fun right now." Sasuke said with a smile on his face as he looked towards his friends. They turned around the corner to enter room 301 when they suddenly saw Kakashi standing outside.

"What are you doing here Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked politely.

"Just here to wish you three luck." Kakashi said cheerfully before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Weird." Naruto said as he looked towards his two friends.

"Ready guys?" Sakura said cheerfully as she held out both her hands towards her friends. Naruto gripped Sakura's left hand softly while Sasuke gripped her right hand. While walking toward the room, all of Team Seven shared a confident smile on their face, illustrating to the world that they came here to win.

As they entered the room, Sasuke was immediately jumped on by Ino. The blond kunoichi was shrugged off instantly as Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke remained hand in hand.

"Please stop doing that Ino." Sasuke stated casually.

"Sorry Sasuke-kun. I've just missed you incredibly!" Ino said in a flirtatious tone.

"Hey Shikamaru, Choji. How have you guys been since graduating from the Academy?" Naruto said cheerfully.

Shikamaru looked at Naruto slightly puzzled by the polite greeting.

"Not bad Naruto. I guess you guys got caught up in taking this stupid exam too." Shikamaru said in a bored tone.

"Hey guys. Looks like all of the rookie nine is here now." Kiba stated as he stood in the circle that had formed between the nine genin as Shino and Hinata followed behind Kiba.

"H...hello Naruto." Hinata said shyly. Naruto grinned towards his friend.

"Hey Hinata. I hope you've been training hard?" Naruto asked in an encouraging tone.

"O...of course Naruto-kun." Hinata said nervously as she let out a small smile.

"You lot need to shut up. Fresh out of academy and making yourself the center of attention towards a bunch of experienced genin." Kabuto stated as he walked near the group of rookie genins.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Ino asked as she stared sternly at the geeky looking genin.

"I'm Kabuto but look behind you." Kabuto said as he pushed his glasses further up his nose.

The rookie nine all turned round to see a majority of the other genins from different villages glaring towards them.

Kabuto began to show his ninja info cards and revealed several of the powerful genins that had turned up. Kabuto revealed to the genin that Gaara has always returned from a mission without the slightest scratch.

Kabuto mentioned a few more ninja before revealing a kunoichi that had taken Naruto by surprise.

"This is Fu. She is the same age as you guys, but her missions for some peculiar reason do not show on here. She is known as the strongest genin in the village of Takigakure." Kabuto stated.

Naruto looked at the genin who was smiling in her picture with tanned skin, green hair, and dark orange eyes. Naruto attempted to look for her amongst the mass of genin but could not find her.

Sighing inwardly to himself, Naruto knew he had to gain everyone's attention despite how much he did not want to.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and we will not lose to you whiny bitches!" Naruto shouted as he pointed towards the large amount of genin.

"What is that baka doing?! He is going to get us killed!" Squealed Ino in Sakura's ear.

"You're the baka Ino. Shut up already!" Sakura barked back in defense of here teammate to Ino's surprise.

Fu looked towards the fool that had made himself everyone's enemy yet could not help but feel a familiar presence as she focused toward the loud genin.

Suddenly, one of the sound genin had jumped up in the air to attack Kabuto. After overhearing Kabuto's conversation with the genin about sound shinobi not being a threat, the sound shinobi intended to make it known painfully how formidable the ninja from Otogakure were.

Immediately, Naruto appeared in the air above the sound genin. Not letting the sound genin have a chance to counter, he delivered a firm double kick to the back of his neck, which caused the sound genin to crash to the floor.

Naruto felt Sasuke appear instantly behind him in order to block the other sound genins from hitting him with a surprise attack.

With one sound genin on the floor, the other two sound genin stopped their attack in favor of retreating to tend to their injured teammate. Noticing their retreat, Sasuke and Naruto rejoined their group with identical smirks.

"Quiet down you bunch of brats!" Came a roaring voice from the cloud of smoke that suddenly appeared in the front of the room.

When the smoke subsided, all the genins in the room were staring at an intimidating man at the center of the room. The genin did not fail to notice how around a dozen chunins were standing beside him on either side.

The man announced himself as Ibiki Morino, the proctor of the first part of the Chunin Exams. Shortly after introducing himself and his team, Ibiki passed out a slip of paper to every genin, which held the location of their assigned seat, and then the written exam.

Immediately after the exam began, the majority of the genin in the room began to freak out as they looked at the test in front of them. Most genins cursed underneath their breath at how the test seemed nearly impossible to do.

While most genins were preoccupied on grieving, Naruto simply smiled to himself and then towards Hinata, whom once again sat on his right side, because he knew what to expect from Ibiki's so called 'Exam'.

Only a few seconds had passed before Naruto sat comfortably in his chair while pretending to portray genuine concern for the Exam.

Fifty minutes had passed before Ibiki gained everyone's attention. He warned them all about taking the tenth question by stating that those genin, who took the tenth question willingly and failed it, would never receive the chance to partake in the chunin exams ever again.

Though, if they decided to quit now, then they could come back later for a second chance.

Naruto knew his previous moves had motivated his friends before so he had to do it again.

Naruto raised his hand as to give up and stared into Ibiki's eyes before confidently slamming it straight down to his desk. This caused the muttering of voices to come to a sudden halt and focus their attention on what this blond haired genin had to say.

"Don't underestimate me! I will not give up! I'll take this question. Even if I fail and remain a genin forever… I will still become Hokage, no matter what! I…Am...Not… Afraid!" Naruto shouted with confidence.

Ibiki kept a stern expression. His gaze never left sight of the blond haired brat, whom dared oppose him.

"I'll repeat this one last time. Your life is riding." Ibiki began, but was interrupted by Naruto.

"I told you my words are unbending. That is my ninja way." Naruto stated.

Fu once again looked up towards the loud genin in wonder.

'I don't know what is up with this boy, but he holds my interest for now.' Fu thought to herself.

"Good choice. For all you brats that have remained here... I congratulate you on passing the first test." Ibiki stated happily after noticing that no other genin showed any remote sign of fear.

After, Ibiki had explained to the remaining genin that the point of the test was to cheat without getting caught, so they could learn the value of collecting information without being detected.

Several seconds passed before a kunoichi had burst through the window and threw two kunais into the ceiling to hold up a black sheet stating the beginning of the second test.

"I am the examiner for the second test! Mitarashi Anko! Let's go!" Anko stated excitedly.

Anko began to count the mass of genin that was surprisingly left. Anko threw a glare at Ibiki, whom was smiling towards the loud kunoichi.

"126 participants remain? There was only 26 teams last time! Sheesh! This test must've gotten soft." Anko stated in an annoyed tone.

"Heh, this year we have a huge amount of outstanding shinobi." Ibiki said cheerfully.

"Blah, fine Ibiki. Do not worry, by the time I'm done with them, these numbers will be cut down to at least half." Anko said excitedly.

Anko stood in front of the 126 participants remaining as they stood outside area 44. Otherwise known as the dreadful Forest of Death.

"This place is creepy." Sakura said as she looked at the massive forest.

Anko grinned excitedly towards the pink haired genin.

"You'll soon find out why it's called the forest of death." Anko stated with a smile.

"Ooooo. You'll soon find out why it's called the forest of death." Naruto said in a mocking tone.

"Heh you are a spirited one." Anko said pleasantly as she gripped a kunai before throwing it instantly towards Naruto. The kunai had cut his left cheek before piercing the ground behind him.

Naruto kept himself still as he wasn't sure exactly what he would gain if he changed this event apart from more attention from the rest of the genin. At that moment, he felt Anko's presence behind him.

"Kids like you are easily killed… Hmm spraying that red blood that I love so much." Anko said seductively as she licked the trickle of blood off Naruto's cheek.

Naruto instantly felt Orochimaru appear behind Anko, whom still had her tongue out when Orochimaru handed her the forgotten kunai with his tongue.

"Thank you. However, do not sneak up behind me again unless you wish to die." Anko smoothly stated as she retrieved her kunai.

"Sorry about that. I just get excited when I see blood, and you did end up cutting my hair with that kunai." Orochimaru said as he was using a different disguise.

After the incident, Anko notified every genin to fill out the forms for the genin to take responsibility for their own life if they were to die in the forest or can no longer live a life as a ninja.

After the procedures were completed, Anko explained the survival test to the numerous teams of genin. She emphasized how the main objective is to reach the tower at the center of the forest that is ten kilometers away in every direction.

She further went into detail in how each team were to be given either a heaven or earth scroll at the start of the exam, and they only have five days to retrieve another by any means necessary.

Finally, she clarified that those who do not reach the tower with both scrolls within the time limit or opened them prior to arriving at the tower will be eliminated from the chunin exams.

Shortly after explaining the objective, Anko sent each team into their proper station and began the exam.

Several minutes had passed since Naruto and his team entered and were making significant progress into the forest when abruptly they heard a few genin screaming.

"It has already begun." Sasuke stated.

"Uh, I'll be back in a second. Just need to go take a piss." Naruto said with a grin as he went to find a bush to relieve himself.

"Urgh, too much information Naruto." Sakura said out loud.

Half a minute had passed before Naruto returned. Upon arriving, he was met with a punch to the face courtesy of Sasuke.

"What the hell was that for Sasuke?" Sakura stated in anger.

"That is not Naruto. His shuriken holster is on the wrong side, and Naruto is missing the scratch that Anko gave him. This imposter is worse than Naruto at transforming." Sasuke stated as his eyes locked onto the fake Naruto.

As the unknown ninja dispersed the transformation jutsu, he boldly demanded the scroll. However, before the genin could attack, Naruto appeared behind him and swiftly snapped his neck.

Sakura looked towards Naruto with a horrified expression. Sasuke was too shocked to form an expression at Naruto's sudden kill. The manner in which Naruto effortlessly broke the ninja's neck without feeling any remorse utterly petrified them.

Furthermore, throughout the process, they could hear the bones snap from the genin's joint and saw how the life was abruptly sucked out of his eyes.

"N...Naruto, why?" Sasuke asked in a startled tone.

"I've realized that we can not afford to leave dangerous enemies to survive in this world." Naruto stated with anger in his voice as he made his way to stand with his friends.

Sakura gently stroked Naruto's fingers and gave a small smile towards Naruto, whom looked up to her from her sudden touch.

"Well, anyways let's get going guys." Naruto said cheerfully as he tried not to think of his first kill.

'It is for the best.' Naruto thought to himself.

Fu jumped from branch to branch with her two teammates. Just like her entire village, she disliked them with a passion for despising her greatly.

She understood that she received all this hate simply because she so happened to be the seven tailed beast's jinchuuriki.

'I wonder if that blonde hair boy will survive this test?' Fu thought to herself before looking back to the two boys on her team who glared at her.

'It looks like I will have to be doing all the work in this test. Trust the village elders to team me up with these slackers.' Fu thought to herself bitterly.

As Team 7 sat down to rest for a moment, they discussed the code Sasuke created to help in recognizing each other from fakes. Suddenly, they were bombarded with paper bombs from an unknown enemy.

Each genin immediately scattered and jumped away from each other to escape the explosions. After the explosion, Sasuke and Sakura were the first to regroup and checked the code with each other to confirm their identity.

At that moment, Naruto emerged from a nearby tree grinning in a manner that made Sasuke feel uneasy.

In hopes of settling his suspicion, he had Naruto repeat the code word for word. However, right as he finished saying the last word, Sasuke threw a kunai at Naruto in hopes of striking him down.

Sasuke immediately explained to Sakura that the Naruto before them was an imposter, claiming that the real Naruto would never be able to recite the real code.

"Impressive, you figured me out Sasuke-kun. Just what I'd expect from the heir to the Uchiha clan" Orochimaru said as he dispersed the fake disguise to reveal his true appearance.

"You want my earth scroll right?" Said Orochimaru as he shoved the scroll deep down his throat. Causing Sakura to shriek in disgust.

While being separated from Sasuke and Sakura, Naruto had easily defeated the two other shinobi that teamed up with Orochimaru. As he closed his eyes, the scenery changed to that of the tailed beasts domain in his mindscape.

The nine tailed beasts had begun to make their way towards Naruto while he began to impatiently wander back and forth from his spot.

"Listen closely, I don't have much time. Right now Orochimaru will be attacking Sasuke. This is where the cursed seal mark is placed on Sasuke. What do I do?! Do I let Orochimaru place the cursed seal on him or do I intervene!" Naruto said in a stressed tone.

The tailed beasts looked to each other before Kurama placed a paw on Naruto's shoulder.

"This is where unfortunately the future will change. I believe to save your friend, you need to prevent the cursed seal mark." Kurama said gently.

Naruto nodded quickly before leaving his telepathic state of mind. Naruto channeled enough of the tailed beast chakra into himself without activating bijuu mode in the process.

With a newfound determination, Naruto bursts towards his team's location in hopes of preventing Sasuke's betrayal and maintaining their friendship even at the cost of any chances to winning the war in the future against Madara.

After several minutes of battling Sasuke, Orochimaru was finding impressive that the young Uchiha had managed to find the courage to take him on.

"You are indeed impressive Sasuke-kun. To think an Uchiha using that caliber of skill and the ability to use the Sharingan at your age is amazing…I must have you Sasuke-kun." Orochimaru claimed as he let his long tongue hang loose.

'What the hell is this guy? He really is starting to creep me out.' Sasuke thought to himself as he threw several demon shurikens towards the freak.

Orochimaru dodged the attacks as he slithered along the thick branch.

"Who the hell are you?!" Sasuke agitatedly shouted towards the pale shinobi.

"I am Orochimaru and when you decide to seek me out. I'll be waiting." Orochimaru said as he brought his hands together into a seal position.

Instantly Orochimaru's neck began to extend to abnormal lengths as he soared towards Sasuke.

Two feet from reaching Sasuke, Naruto unexpectedly arrives through the sky with his red eyes and he grips Orochimaru's neck.

As he lands on the branch, he tightly grasps Orochimaru's neck before bursting back to the sky with the extended body of the snake sannin behind him.

"Stay away from us or I'll kill you!" Naruto screamed as he launched Orochimaru far into the sky. Naruto began to descend towards the ground as he watched Orochimaru soaring out of the arena with his neck still extended by several meters.

While grabbing at a nearby tree, Naruto started to apply chakra to his hands in order to slow down his descent before landing next to his friends.

"Where the hell did that come from Naruto?" Sasuke asked in a surprised tone but felt instantly relieved that this Orochimaru guy was gone for now.

"Heh sorry, my chakra just seemed to erupt everywhere from inside me when I saw the freak coming at you." Naruto said weakly.

Sasuke gave Naruto a suspicious look before sitting himself on the ground. Sakura then began to wrap a bandage around Sasuke's thigh where he had stabbed himself earlier with a kunai to escape from Orochimaru's killing intent.

'Naruto is definitely hiding something from me. He is much stronger than he puts on. That's for sure.' Sasuke curiously thought to himself before slipping into unconsciousness from extreme charka exhaustion.

"Don't worry Sakura. It's best that he stays unconscious for awhile." Naruto stated cheerfully as he scooped Sasuke up before placing him under a tree that had some space underneath it from the ground giving way.

"Sakura I don't expect you to remember all them years worth of memories, but this is the moment where you soon cut your hair to the style you have now. I will sit back and watch as the three sound nin arrive. Don't worry though, I won't let any harm come to you." Naruto said confidently as he disappeared.

Thirty minutes had passed while Naruto masked his chakra as he hid in one of the nearby trees. Naruto watched as the sound genin made their way towards Sakura.

However, Lee arrived with his leaf spinning wind kick and collided with the sound kunoichi and one of the male shinobi.

The other shinobi had managed to dodge the attack. During the course of the battle, Naruto couldn't help think to himself in how he had never seen this battle take place as he watched Lee pull out a giant root from the ground to block the sound shinobi's attack.

The sound shinobi somehow managed to successfully attack Lee. This direct attacked Caused the taijutsu master to fall to the ground and become incapable of any movement as blood trickled out of his ear.

Even though he knew everything would be okay, it still pained Naruto to sit by and watch his friends get hurt.

Naruto looked over to see Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino watching the fight and debateting whether to help or not.

Naruto knew it was now pointless to sit by and watch these events play out as he had already changed what the outcome would be by preventing Orochimaru's cursed seal.

Naruto summoned twenty clones and informed them to reach into their pouches to pull out several smoke bombs. Once each clone pulled out a few smoke bombs each, they launched them everywhere thereby blinding everyone.

At this moment, Naruto quickly activated his bijuu mode before rushing towards the three sound genin.

Naruto, with the help of the sensing ability that the bijuu mode provides, was able to sense the sound shinobi. With his targets found, he quickly broke two arms from the sound shinobi who was able to shoot out air pressure.

Naruto wasn't fond of hearing the snap of the arms, but he knew this was what Sasuke had done in the previous time line.

After snapping the boy's arms, he moved to the kunoichi before delivering a backhand across her face to render her unconscious.

With the sound ninja handicapped, Naruto deactivated his bijuu mode before shooting out of the smoke and standing beside Sakura.

'Shit! Shit! Shit! It was one arm that Sasuke had broke not two!' Naruto thought to himself.

As the smoke gradually cleared, it was clear that Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji were dumbfounded by the sudden defeat of the sound shinobi.

The only remain sound genin stood dumbfounded at to what occurred as he looked towards his two unconscious teammates.

Naruto had not realized that Neji stood next to Tenten on a nearby tree and had watched the whole spectacle with his Byakugan.

'I couldn't even see how big Naruto's chakra was in time. What exactly is he doing to amplify his chakra to such a degree that it's even visible outside of his body.' Neji thought to himself curiously.

Ino had emerged from the bushes to stand by Sakura, still shocked. Shikamaru and Choji followed suit as they stood next to Naruto.

"Who… who even did that?" Ino asked curious as she watched the sound shinobi throw his scroll towards Naruto before scooping up his two teammates under each arm as he leapt away.

Naruto wasn't going to say anything, but Sakura threw a cheerful smile towards her friend.

"It was Naruto. He is really good at fighting blindly. It was why he used so many smoke bombs to get the advantage over our enemies." Sakura said proudly as Naruto grinned in return.

"Damn, Naruto. Troublesome as always. You sure have made some progress since leaving the academy. Now I'm not sure if you are even weaker than me" Shikamaru stated in the same bored tone as usual.

"Erm, thanks Shikamaru." Naruto said happily, not knowing whether to be glad to have received a compliment from the lazy genius or angered from being insulted.

They all turned towards Sasuke as he began to groan. A few seconds had passed before Sasuke got up slowly and headed over towards the group.

"What happened? What are you guys even doing here?" Sasuke asked as he looked up at Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji before also looking over to see Tenten leaping away with Lee's arm around her shoulders.

"Explaining to you would be too troublesome." Shikamaru stated. Earning a tired glare from Sasuke.

"Lazy as always Shikamaru." Sasuke said blankly.

The rest of the group of genin could only laugh at the antics of their friends, forgetting completely the events that just transpired.

Miles away from Konoha, Orochimaru pushed himself off the branch that the middle of his torso was impaled on before landing on the ground.

Immediately, a new body slithered out of his mouth and discarded the previous one. Panting heavily from the exertion of chakra, Orochimaru sank down onto the floor.

'That brat is definitely the nine tailed jinchuuriki. However, to possess such amount of chakra at his age is unheard of. I must keep an eye out for him when I try to get to Sasuke-kun next time.' Orochimaru thought to himself as he pushed himself off the ground before disappearing into the earth.

**The end of chapter 7. Please leave a review! Reviews let me know that I'm doing a not too shabby job of this story! Thank you all for your support. Pm me for any questions :)**

**A huge thanks for FOXJ NS 4EVER has my new beta reader & done such an amazing job of making the flow of the story far better than I've made it so far!**

Also I thank each and every one of you for following my story and leaving reviews!


	8. Chapter 8: The Three Jinchurikis

******Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Naruto or the original characters or the original story that Kishimoto Masashi** **made.**

**Author Note: I will always post a chapter every Saturday. Though sometimes like now I will post a chapter before hand as an extra one. I hope you will take a few seconds out of your time to leave a review on this chapter. Thank you everyone!**

**Chapter Eight: The Three Jinchurikis**

After ninety-four hours into the second test, Fu had retrieved the earth scroll that she needed by herself while her two teammates hid in fear with the nearby bushes. As they entered the tower, a feeling of relief swept through Fu.

'Thank god, I'm now free of those two useless idiots. The sooner they get defeated here, the better.' Fu thought to herself pleasantly.

Meanwhile, ninety-eight hours had passed since the second exam began. Naruto was by himself and sent a dozen clones to search through the forest for any team who possessed an earth scroll.

As one of his clones dispersed, Naruto learned the location of two genin, whom were bickering whether to open the earth scroll or not.

Naruto knew that the genin's position wasn't that far away, so he quickly activated his bijuu mode in order to arrive there as quickly as possible. After landing, he deactivated his bijuu mode.

Using their bickering to his advantage, he quickly picked up two large stones and immediately moved to stand behind them. Not giving them time to notice, he slammed the stones hard at the back of their heads. Naruto quickly scooped up the scroll and dashed off towards his friends.

"Where is that dobe?" Sasuke asked to Sakura as he began frying the fish.

"He said he wanted to scout for any enemies nearby, in hopes of finding the scroll." Sakura said softly as she cleaned her kunais.

"Hey Sakura. Have you noticed that Naruto seems to be a lot more powerful lately?" Sasuke asked curiously as he concentrated on the roasted fish.

"To be honest, I think we've all made progress Sasuke." Sakura said pleasantly, trying to avoid Sasuke thinking further on the subject.

"Hey guys, look at what I have!" Naruto landed between the pair with a grin, holding up the earth scroll in one hand.

"What the…where did you find that?" Sasuke asked. He then took the earth scroll from Naruto to examine it and make sure it was not a fake.

"Two idiots were bickering about opening it, so I snuck up behind them, knocked them out, and ran off." Naruto said cheerfully.

"Heh you sly dog." Sasuke said with a smirk.

"Well let's get going. It shouldn't take us too long to arrive at the tower. I can just about see the tower from here." Sakura said as she stood on the side of the tree as she looked towards the tower.

An hour had passed before the tired team seven had appeared outside the doors of the tower.

Naruto had earlier ordered several clones to clear a safe pathway for them that lead to the tower. Naruto had decided to take a different rout than he had in his past timeline. He did not want to risk bumping into Kabuto or running into the genjutsu users.

Sasuke and Naruto both grabbed a handle of the door, with Sakura standing behind them with a smile of relief. They pushed open the door to enter an empty room. Sasuke mmediately saw an inscription on the wall, and he noticed that the sign was missing several words.

"It looks like we may have to open the scrolls now. Sakura open the one you have." Sasuke said as he opened the earth scroll and at the same time Sakura opened the heaven scroll.

Sasuke's expression changed from to panic as he felt something coming from the scrolls.

"Sakura, drop the scroll! It's a summoning jutsu!" Sasuke said desperately, causing the three of them to jump away from the scrolls. As the scrolls fell to the ground, a big puff of smoke could be seen.

When the smoke subsided, they were shocked to see Iruka appear from the smoke to greet them. Though Naruto wasn't shock, he was simply overwhelmed at seeing the man, whom he considered as his older brother.

After appearing, Iruka began to answer their many questions before explaining the writing on the wall to the three genin of the chunin's motto.

"If like Naruto, you lack brains. Then gain knowledge. If you are like Sakura, whom lacks stamina, then train your endurance. I must be going, but I congratulate you on passing the second test. Now, for the third and final test, I need you three to give it your all. Make me proud. " Iruka said before disappearing.

All the surviving teams had arrived in a rather large room, which looked like it had seen it's fair share of battles. Many of the team jonins and even the Hokage stood behind Anko to greet them.

Once they all settled down, Anko began to congratulate them.

"I am surprised that there are still this many of you. Twenty-four participants are left now. Hokage-sama will now explain the third test." Anko said strictly.

"Before explaining the third test, I wish to tell you the reason for having so many participants from allied countries, taking the exam together this year. It is to promote friendship and to maintain peace amongst our allies. We basically use these exams as a measurement of each country's power. Do not fret, this is still an exam fro those whom will claim the rank of chunin." The Hokage stated.

The Hokage explained to them the advantages and disadvantages this exam will have on the power and wealth of each country. The village that is seen as the strongest will certainly receive the most clients. However, villages that perform poorly will receive a great decrease in clients and will be viewed weakly in their enemy's perspective.

This had not sat well with some of the genin. Some had openly questioned the Hokage, but he quickly responded to the individuals by reaffirming that the test remained a life threatening battle.

Suddenly, a cloud of smoke appeared, and left a leaf shinobi standing in front of the Hokage.

"Sorry Hokage-sama, but please allow me to explain the third test to them as their referee, Gekkou Hayate." Said Hayate who looked physically sick and coughed several times.

"By all means, Hayate." The Hokage said as he took a long drag from his pipe.

"We will now undergo a preliminary test before the third test in order to determine those who will partake in the final exam a month from now." Hayate stated.

"Then what the hell is the point of passing the second test, if we can't go straight to the third test?!" Shouted Fu.

Naruto immediately spotted the green haired kunoichi and immediately felt himself being pulled into his subconscious.

Naruto stood before the hovering Chomei.

"What the… this really isn't the time to talk to me. I'm gonna miss the…" However, before Naruto could continue, Chomei interrupted him.

"Sorry Naruto, but you already know what will be said. There are more people this time than in your previous timeline. I've also noticed that my previous hostess is here with my twin. I don not know why she is here as she never took this exam here before. However, I am just warning you not to get close. If I can sense my twin, then surely they will be able to sense me. That will cause them to be confused as to what is going on. Go now." Chomei stated as Naruto felt himself being pushed back to the present.

"…so this is why we will have you battle each other in this preliminary test. This will shorten the numbers of contestants in the third test. That is, the final exam." Hayate stated.

Every genin began to squabble with each other before being interrupted by Kabuto, whom held his hand up and gave a weak smile.

"Umm.. I quit." Kabuto said blankly.

Hayate expression didn't change as he spoke.

"Does anyone else wish to retire before we commence?" Hayate stated before releasing another cough that seemed to happen frequently.

"We…we wish to forfeit." Said a nervous shinobi as he looked towards his teammate before both glanced towards Fu.

"Thank god, you two are finally gone. Bye!" Said Fu in a fake, pleasant tone and seemed to be glad to see them quit.

Seeing as no one remaining wished to withdraw, Hayate continued speaking.

"There are no rules. This is a real life battle so do not hold back or it may result in your death. Now, only twenty-one participants remain. We will hold ten matches, but one will be a three man battle, with the last man standing moving on." Hayate stated.

'I need to be cautious. Things are definitely going to be different than before.' Naruto thought to himself.

Hayate began to unveil the electric board that will show who will be facing who in the upcoming battles. After a while, it revealed the first contestants.

"Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi." Hayate read out loud as the names appeared on the electric board.

"Are you two ready?" Hayate said as he backed away.

"Yes." Sasuke said eagerly as he activated his Sharingan.

"Yes" Said Yoroi.

Sasuke eyed the genin. The genin kept his face hidden behind a black piece of cloth and was wearing small black spectacles to hide his eyes.

'I am low on chakra. I need to end this quickly, or I'll end up fighting without the Sharingan.' Sasuke thought to himself.

Immediately Yoroi threw several mini shurikens towards Sasuke in which Sasuke dodged, following with a jump into the air.

**"Fire Release: Triple Fire Elephant!"** Immediately, three large flames emerged, each in the shape of an elephant, and soared towards Yoroi. He had managed to dodge just in time, but he soon felt a kunai pierce his left shoulder as Sasuke had appeared behind him.

"You little shit. Pretty fast are you?" Yoroi said as he leapt away before grimacing as he pulled the kunai out.

"Heh I'm not going soft in these battles. If you intend to win then come at me with full force." Sasuke said smugly.

"I'll make you eat those words you little brat." Yoroi shouted and then ran towards Sasuke with his limp arm.

Yoroi built up chakra and had it surround his right hand as he attempted a strike towards Sasuke. However, Sasuke noticed and dodged the attack in time. Then, Sasuke swiftly grabbed Yoroi by his right wrist, stabbed a kunai into the genin's right hand, and twisted it to cause Yoroi pain.

Yoroi fell to his knees and brought his right hand up to his face to pull out the kunai with his mouth. As Yoroi managed to drop the kunai from his mouth, Sasuke had appeared behind him and slammed the side of his palm into Yoroi's neck. The sudden attack caused the genin to collapse to the ground.

Hayate made his way over to check Yoroi pulse before looking up to the audience.

"Winner, Uchiha Sasuke." Hayate said, causing some of the audience to cheer with Naruto, Sakura, and Ino.

Sasuke made his way over to his team before receiving a high five from a grinning Naruto and a hug from Sakura.

"Well done Sasuke-kun." Lee said cheerfully as he moved over to stand by Naruto.

"Um thank you Lee." Sasuke said in surprise at Lee's politeness toward him, despite having battle each other earlier.

With the match over, Hayate stepped forward to announce the second match.

"Time is of the essence, so the next match will be Abumi Zaku vs. Aburame Shino." Hayate stated as he read the electric board.

As they began to battle, Zaku was clearly at a disadvantage with having both of his hands out of commission. Before Shino even had the chance to strike, Zaku held his hand up to forfeit.

"I quit." Zaku said bitterly, knowing full well that he had no chance to win without his hands.

"Winner, Aburame Shino." Hayate stated.

Soon after, they all watched as Kankuro was put against Orochimaru's last pawn. Within minutes, Kankuro had defeated the genin with his puppet. Naruto yawned loudly in boredom, which caught the attention of both Gaara and Fu.

'He is bored, at a time like this? Hmmm, I can't wait to see what this kid is capable.' Fu thought to herself as her gaze fell to the puppet master, whom walked over towards the red haired kid.

'I can feel a lot of darkness from him, but why does he also stand out to me?' Fu thought to herself.

"The next contestants are Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino." Hayate shouted.

At once, the two kunoichi stared at each other with determination. Knowing the outcome, Naruto used this time to pretend to use the toilet, so he could communicate with his inner friends.

Once Naruto was in the cubicle, he let himself arrive into his mental state and stood near the lake. As Naruto watched his friends sleeping peacefully, he tiptoed towards Chomei before gently poking Chomei's blue, armored face.

"Naruto, what do you want?" Chomei asked, being irritated that his sleep was interrupted by the blond ninja.

"I want to know more about this Fu girl. Tell me about her." Naruto asked eagerly.

"Well, she is the same age as you. You know where she is from. Like you, Fu had the same terrible experience as a child, except she has no friends whatsoever. She remains an outcast in her village, and it is not until she turned 13 that we made a connection. Therefore, at the moment she has never spoken to me but is able to use the first version of the bijuu mode, up to three tails, before losing control." Chomei stated.

Naruto sighed to himself as he wondered what it would be like to still be hated that way.

"Please continue, Chomei." Naruto said.

"Though she is mistreated, she does end up abandoning her village at the age of 14, but she is like you in a way Naruto. She remains positive, despite how people have treated her, until her death by the Akatsuki when she was 16. Also, she never experienced what it was like to have a friend. If you do end up getting to know her, then please do not reveal the future to her, for now." Chomei said.

Naruto smiled towards his friend before disappearing back to the present.

Naruto made his way back to the arenas he watched Asuma and Kakashi sit Ino and Sakura against the wall beside each other as the two were unconscious.

"Eh, it looks like they had a long and bloody battle." Naruto said grimly.

Shikamaru gave Naruto a shocked look.

"You missed the entire fight?" Shikamaru asked. The genius was taken back at how Naruto could possibly miss out on Sakura's battle.

"I couldn't help it; nature was calling." Naruto said embarrassingly.

Focusing his attention back to the fights, Naruto looked on to see that Temari had just defeated Tenten. Ten was laid on top of the large fan. The fan would surely leave a huge bruise on her back, once she regained consciousness.

"Winner Sabaku no Temari." Hayate stated as he watched the medical nin carry Tenten away.

Several minutes had passed and Naruto was watching as Shikamaru began his match against his opponent, which was the sound kunoichi. Naruto wasn't interested in the battle, so he went to Fu, whom was on the other side of the stand by herself.

Fu watched the bond kid, that had caught her interest before, approach her with a friendly smile.

Naruto held out a hand towards Fu as he stood before her, noticing she was an inch below his height.

"I'm Uzumaki N.." Naruto was interrupted as Fu clasped her hand over his.

"Naruto. Yes, I remembered hearing your name during the first test. I am Fu." Fu said cheerfully as she returned a smile.

After being introduced to Fu, Naruto turned over to lean over the bar of the stand and watched as Shikamaru won his battle.

"So, you reckon you'll win your battle?" Naruto asked curiously.

Fu leaned over the bar just like Naruto as she spoke.

"Definitely. I will make sure I become a chunin." Fu said confidently.

"Me too. Hopefully we can both reach the rank of chunin. Although, it's a shame we are not allowed to use our jinchuuriki powers." Naruto said casually as he looked up at Fu. Shock could clearly be seen in her orange eyes.

"You're a jinchuuriki as well?" Fu asked quietly, making sure no one could hear her remark.

"Yes, I'm the jinchuuriki of the nine tailed fox. Also, the red haired kid over there is the jinchuuriki of the one tail raccoon." Naruto said as he pointed over towards Gaara, whom had noticed immediately.

'Why the hell is this weakling pointing at me with a stupid grin?' Gaara thought to himself before turning his attention to Shikamaru being crowned the victor of the match.

"Uzumaki Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba." Hayate shouted after seeing whose names were up on the electric board.

Naruto began to walk away as he heard Fu shout out.

"Good luck, Naruto!" Fu said loudly.

"Thank you! Talk to you after I win this!" Naruto said confidently.

Sakura, whom gained consciousness during Shikamaru's match, watched Naruto head towards his battle with Kiba, but she could not stop thinking of Fu.

'Who is that girl? More importantly, why is Naruto talking to her?' Sakura thought to herself as she felt a hint of jealousy wash over her from seeing Naruto happily talking to Fu.

"I heard you mention that you will win this to that cute girl over there." Kiba stated as he nodded his head towards Fu.

"Ah Kiba, you know you can't beat me!" Naruto said with a grin, trying and succeeding in angering the Inuzuka..

"Hell no. I won't lose to you!" Kiba said angrily.

"Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry: Man-Beast Clone Jutsu!" shouted Kiba as Akamaru's fur turned red before transforming into Kiba's double.

**"Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry: All Fours!"** Kiba shouted after Akamaru became his clone. Now, the fangs and nails of the two Kiba's lengthened, causing the nails to become claws.

It ultimately led to them appearing more animalistic and deadly. With their transformation completed, Kiba along with Akamaru crouched to the ground. Meanwhile, Naruto took a defensive stance in preparation for when Kiba attacked him.

Not letting Kiba land a hit, Naruto slammed a hard kick to Kiba's face sending him instantly flying back. Kiba landed hard on his back and looked up to see Akamaru had transformed back into his normal self upon landing on top of his stomach.

'How the hell can he match my speed?' Kiba thought to himself before he rushed towards Naruto. Naruto quickly summoned five clones. One grabbed Akamaru as the other flipped Kiba onto his back, each holding an arm or leg.

"This is definitely not the same Naruto from the academy." Shikamaru said out loud and received nods from his team mates and the other rookie genin.

"Go Naruto!" Sakura shouted.

"Wrap this up Naruto!" Fu shouted out.

"Grrr, let go of me." Kiba growled towards Naruto.

"Kiba admit defeat or I will be forced to cause you further pain." Naruto said peacefully.

"Eat shit, Naruto." Kiba shouted angrily, refusing to lose to Naruto.

Naruto grinned and simply walked over to Kiba before punching him straight in the face. All that could be seen after Naruto's punch was the back of Kiba's head hitting the ground hard, rendering the Inuzuka boy unconscious.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto." Hayate stated.

Naruto let out a big grin before noticing Fu sticking her thumb out in congratulations and hearing the cheers coming from his comrades.

After which, he walked back toward his team was standing. Sasuke greeted his best friend, the same way Naruto had, with a high five. Meanwhile, Sakura gave Naruto a close and tight hug for winning his match against Kiba.

Soon after, Hinata and Neji's names were called out and they headed toward the arena. Naruto quickly appeared by Hinata, which startled the pale Hyuga. Automatically, her face turned a deep shade of red as a result of her close proximity to Naruto. Naruto pulled her by the arm, to have her closer to him, and whispered in her ear.

"Be careful, Hinata. You may not win this but show him you are a strong kunoichi, whom more than deserves the name Hyuga. Do not let his words get to you! I believe in you Hinata." Naruto said before walking off after smiling toward her.

'N..Naruto-kun. Thank you!' Hinata thought to herself and suddenly she felt a burst of confidence surge through her due to Naruto's words.

After her conversation with Naruto, Hinata made her way to stand in front of her cousin, whose pale eyes were glaring right into her own.

"Hinata-sama you are not a good shinobi. Forfeit." Neji stated.

"N..No I will not." Hinata said as she took her family's taijutsu stance, the Gentle Fist.

"So be it Hinata-sama." Neji said in an arrogant voice as he also took up the Gentle Fist.

Hinata began to listen to Neji's statements about her posture, and she remembered her father's comments regarding her being an inferior Hyuga.

"Neji, shut up. You, stupid prick!" Naruto shouted at the self-righteous Hyuga.

'Naruto-kun…' Hinata thought to herself before shooting forward towards her cousin and activating, her kekkei genkai, causing Neji to also activate his Byakugan.

They exchanged blows but neither was able to successfully hit the other until Hinata managed to slam her palm deep into the right side of Neji's torso.

"Ugh." Neji groaned as he took several steps back.

As they began to exchange blows once again, it seemed that Hinata was gaining the upper hand as she sent an attack towards Neji. After which, the two Hyuga's stood at a stand still.

The surrounding genin believed that Hinata was the one that had struck Neji, but Naruto knew what truly had occurred between the two. After several seconds, everyone had noticed Neji's palm against Hinata's chest as blood spluttered out of her mouth.

Hinata tried to strike her cousin again, but Neji had gripped her wrist. He then pulled up her sleeve to reveal several red bumps around her arms. This indicated that he managed to block several chakra points, utterly stopping her from sending chakra to her arms.

"From the beginning, my eyes could see these Hinata-sama." Neji stated.

Neji now pulled his arm back before slamming it forward into Hinata's left shoulder. This caused the Hyuga heiress to fall hard onto her back.

A few seconds had passed before Hinata slowly pushed herself up and ran towards her cousin to launch another attack. However, Neji had dodged the attack easily before slamming one palm into her face and the other into her stomach.

Hinata fell to the ground again, but this time she took almost half a minute before wobbling back up. She began to swear profusely as she gasped for air.

"Why bother Hinata? You will just suffer and die if you continue this. Forfeit now or I will not be held accountable for my actions, if you choose to continue. You were born weak and a disappointment to the main branch family. Just give up now." Neji said arrogantly.

"No, Brother. It is not me who is suffering, but it is you, with your anger towards the main branch, whom suffers more." Hinata said softly.

Letting his anger take control, Neji activated his Byakugan and rushed towards Hinata with the intentions of killing her.

Before any of the jonin or Hayate could intervene, Naruto rushed to block Neji's blow and gripped the Hyuga's fist tight. By now, Naruto had lost his temper from watching the fight between the two Hyuga genin.

"The fight is over." Naruto said in an angry tone as Kurenai, Guy, and Kakashi had appeared. Guy and Kakashi pulled away Neji as the genin deactivated his Byakugan, while Kurenai attended to Hinata.

"Cool it, Naruto." Kakashi said as he peered down towards his student.

Naruto ignored him.

"Oi, destiny child." Naruto taunted.

Upon hearing the insult, Neji turned around to glare at Naruto.

"What do you want loser?" Neji said angrily.

Naruto reached down to the ground to touch Hinata's blood before pointing his bloodied hand towards Neji.

"You are going down." Naruto stated.

"Bah. Whatever loser, no one can escape his or her destiny. " Neji said arrogantly and walked off towards the stands, in wait for the remaining three matches to end.

'That kid stopped me from humiliating the main family further. He will pay with his life for this.' Neji thought angrily to himself as he stormed off.

**End of chapter 8.**

**Please leave a review for this story! Ahhhh, I am really enjoying writing this story. Any questions just pm me!**


	9. Chapter 9: Why Not Join Konoha?

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Naruto, the original characters, or the original story that Kishimoto Masashi made.**

Author Note: It usually every Saturday I post my chapter but my new beta reader is super swamped this week and he is kindly trying to use the little spare time he has to edit my chapter. So it will be on a Wednesday, later than normal :) I rather you all see the chapter when it is at it's finest.

**Chapter Nine: Why Not Join Konoha?**

"That Rock Lee is amazing. I need to obtain that kind of speed and fast." Sasuke said to his best friend. They had just witnessed Lee being pulled away to the emergency room by medic nins. The genin now suffered from a broken leg and arm courtesy of Gaara's final attack.

"Tell me about it. His speed is incredible. I couldn't even keep up." Naruto said casually, complementing Lee's speed to give the impression that he as well was envious of the genin.

"Also, that Gaara guy is a huge freak of nature. I'm excited if I get to face him at the finals. But, in the event that I do face him, I feel I would need to be prepared to kill him. He seems like the type that kills for pleasure." Sasuke stated. Everyone in the arena had witnessed the sand genin's disturbing killing intent during and after his match with Lee.

Most of the rookie genin had never seen such concentrated amount of killing intent directed at one person. As a result, many occasionally quivered at the thought of how they could have easily been taken to the emergency room instead of Lee.

Directing his attention the main arena, Naruto realized that only Choji, Fu, and Dosu remain and were the lucky individuals to fight in the three-way match. Naruto watched as Hayate called all three contestants to the stage in order to announce the final match of the preliminaries.

Fu walked down the rail, anxious to start her match and become one step closer to the rank of Chunin. Once she had arrived to the centre of the arena, she glanced up towards Naruto, for her gaze to meet him grinning towards her.

"Good luck Fu!" Naruto shouted, encouraging the green-haired genin to give it her best. Fu responded with a small smile that could be seen on her face. She was glad that someone truly believed in her abilities as a kunoichi.

Once all three genin arrived and had a fair amount of distance from each other, Hayate shouted, "Final match. Akimichi Choji vs. Kinuta Dosu vs. Fu. Begin."

As soon as those words left Hayate's mouth, the three contestants distanced themselves even more and now stood in a triangle formation. Quickly, Fu looked at the sound shinobi before shifting her gaze to the genin she knew as Choji.

Not waiting for her opponents to make the first move, Fu flipped backwards and slammed her right palm to the ground.

**"Summoning jutsu!"** Shouted Fu as the huge amount of smoke began to clear, and revealed four human sized spiders. The group of spiders split off into pairs and nimbly ran towards the two shinobi. With the distanced between their opponents shortened, the four spiders each jumped into the air before spraying the two shinobi with web from their rear ends.

Dosu had managed to escape the web by quickly jumping behind the spiders' blind spot, but the web had caught Choji, whom struggled heavily to rid himself of the blasted webbing.

"Heh. This won't keep me down." Choji said in confidence. After taking a moment to calm himself, the big-boned genin reorganize his thoughts on how to approach the deadly spiders. Then, he started to perform hand seals for his clan's signature ninjutsu.

**"Partial Multi Size jutsu!"** Shouted the Akimichi. After uttering those words, Choji's body began to increase in exponential size and was ready to begin rampaging throughout the arena.

However, his body halted to a stop by the chakra infused webs from the spiders. Choji had no choice but to deactivate his jutsu unless he desired for the web to cut into his body and skewer him like a shish kabob.

'I've already lost.' Choji thought to himself depressingly. Utterly disappointed that he was rendered immobile not even a minute into the match.

"You have some strong web there, kunoichi." Dosu said smugly as he dodged more of the spider's attacks. He dodged in time to see a smirk spread across Fu's face.

"That's not all. I still have another trick up my sleeve. Let's see you try to dodge this one. Mumma's boy." Fu said confidently as she performed several seals.

**"Fire Release: Fire Venom Spiral!"** Shouted Fu. No sooner had she spoken the name of her jutsu than an intense purple fire shot out of her mouth in a vicious spiral directed at the tense Dosu.

Thinking quick on his feet, Dosu dodged to the left, avoiding a fatal encounter with the fire. Suddenly, the vicious flames burst through the ground. Dosu sniggered at the slowness of the jutsu before feeling confused.

Looking into the eyes of the orange-eyed kunoichi, he saw her grinning towards him still with her hands in the seal formation.

All the while, he failed to sense the burning of the ground below. Only a moment prior did Dosu realize that the fire was about to erupt underneath again.

Before Dosu had time to act, the purple fire had spouted from the ground beneath him. He was at the fire's mercy, not being capable to repel the flames.

All he could do was allow the fire to roughly engulf his body and scream in agony as he felt the flesh of skin being burnt right off him. Meanwhile, in her head, Fu counted to five before releasing the jutsu that held Dosu in place.

With the jutsu released, Dosu plummeted to the ground and was left unconscious. The sound genin's body was completely blackened by the severe burns he had received from the jutsu. Furthermore, his clothing was burnt to a crisp.

Only the top sections of his battle armour and slacks remained, revealing to all the second degree burns all over his legs, chest, stomach, and face.

"Winner, Fu. This concludes the last match of the preliminaries. Congratulations to all victors, whom now have entry to the third exam." Hayate announced to all the remaining genin and squad leaders.

With the conclusion of Hayate's announcement, Fu, walked over towards the approaching Naruto, with a grin on her face over having proven herself triumphant over her two opponents.

"That was some awesome jutsu you showed there." Naruto said in amazement once Fu was standing right across form him. He truly was astonished at how the female kunoichi had performed remarkably in her battle against both Choji and Dosu. To immobile two opponents in such a short period of time was no easy accomplishment for any genin.

"Heh. Thank you Naruto. It means a lot. I have many more. Umm, can we catch up some time before the third exam so we can talk more about the…jinchuriki thing?" Fu asked nervously, hoping to become better acquainted with her fellow jinchuriki. Surprisingly, a small part of her was afraid of hearing a rejection coming from the blonde's mouth in response to her request.

"Sure! I will come find you when I am able to." Naruto said immediately after Fu's request. He smiled in content at befriending the female jinchuriki. However, their conversation didn't continue long after Naruto's statement due to an interruption by Kakashi, calling him back.

"I gotta go, but see you soon, Fu. Glad to have made a friend." Naruto happily said. He let the word, friend, last a little longer on his lips. In response, Fu released a big smile as she bid farewell to her first friend.

If Naruto had only stayed a while longer, then he would have noticed the affecting it had on Fu after ward's. She was overjoyed at the fact that she had made her first, true friend in Naruto. Now Fu knew that she no longer had to face the terrible abyss of the world's darkness alone.

After the short intermission, all the victorious genin headed towards the front of the arena, where the Hokage made them each pick a paper out of a box. Each paper had a number, indicating the order in which the finals would take place.

After the nine shinobi had picked their numbers, the Hokage held a board to show whom each genin would be facing in the finals.

The order was as followed:

Naruto vs. Neji. Gaara vs. Sasuke. Kankuro vs. Fu. Shikamaru vs. Temari. Also, Shino would face the victor between Shikamaru and Temari's fight because the double knock out, from Ino and Sakura's fight, had created a lack of a tenth competitor.

Now that the order was announced to all the genin, the third Hokage began to explain that despite losing their match, participants could still become a chunin. He notified them that there would be examiners scoring each participant on qualities a chunin should possess and portray in battle.

With that said, they were all dismissed and sent to train. It was pointed out that all the genin now had a general background on each of their opponent's skills and abilities.

Thus, the purpose of the month's training was to prepare and hone their skills for their upcoming battles with their opponents at the tournament.

Naruto left the building immediately after the Hokage's announcement, but Sasuke and Sakura had followed in pursuit of him. Once noticing them, Naruto turned in their direction, eager to hear what they wish to inform him about.

"Hey, dobe. Sorry. I won't be around much, but don't be mad... Kakashi sensei wants to train me alone for some reason." Sasuke said hesitantly, dreading the reaction from the blonde regarding the lack of training from their sensei.

Surprisingly to Sasuke, Naruto smirked and then clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder. Looking into his best friend's eyes, Sasuke noticed a sense of understanding radiating from the blonde.

"That's fine, Sasuke. I already have someone in mind whom can help me train, but make sure you train hard. You seem to have the biggest monster out of all of us." Naruto said grimly, knowing the advancement the Uchiha needs to achieve in order to defeat Gaara's ultimate defense.

"The same can go for you, Naruto. Neji is extremely skilled and a natural prodigy with his Byakugan. Make sure to pull out the stick in his ass and put him in his place." Sasuke said, believing that Naruto was fully capable of beating the arrogance out of the Hyuga genius.

Thus, with a grin, Sasuke dashed off in search of Kakashi and in hopes of beginning his training as soon as possible. With his departure, Naruto and Sakura were left alone, but Sakura shortly ended the silence when she began to speak.

"Naruto. Now, that both Sasuke and yourself will be training for the finals, what should I do?" Sakura asked, depressed at not being strong enough to defeat Ino and move on with the rest of her team to the finals.

"Train! Go shopping and have fun. Get that sadness out of your system. Spend a day of relaxing and then train hard. You know, you will soon be learning to become a medic nin under Tsunade, once I retrieve her. So it might be a good idea to get a head start." Naruto said cheerfully, lifting up the spirits of his fallen team mate and crush. He always knew just what to say to motivate Sakura and bring a smile to her porcelain face.

"Thank you, Naruto. See you soon and make sure to train hard, so you kick Neji's butt!" Sakura said with a genuine smile and some playful giggles. This caused Naruto to raise an eyebrow and soon smirked at her statement regarding Neji. After her statement, she walked off in the direction of her home in order to relax from the strain she put her body during the second exam.

'Please, going against Neji will be a breeze.' Naruto thought to himself, once he and Sakura went their own ways. He knew that beating Neji wouldn't be too much to handle.

After walking and appearing in a secluded park, Naruto sat down for several seconds and gathered natural energy around him before entering sage mode. Once in sage mode, Naruto had a better comprehension of his surroundings and soon placed his attention on focusing on a certain perverted sage's chakra signature.

Just the feel of Jiraiya's chakra was all that was needed to bring a few tears to Naruto's eyes and cascade down his face.

'I've missed you so much, Ero-Sennin.' Naruto merrily thought to himself. He realized that, after all the events that have occurred in both his timelines, he once again had the opportunity to be in the presence of his beloved godfather.

Settling aside his emotions, Naruto began to move towards the destination where Jiraiya's chakra could ever be spotted for more than an hour. Konoha's Hot Springs.

'That's it baby. Just turn round and show me your enormous bo...' Jiraiya perversely thought with a sly grin. He was interrupted from his so-called 'research' however, when he felt the presence of someone behind him.

Jiraiya turned round to see a familiar looking face but had no idea who the kid was. The toad sennin was facing a blonde haired, blue-eyed genin, whose firm gaze never left those of the sage's. At this point, Jiraiya began to curiously question why this brat was interrupting his beloved 'research'.

"Who are you kid? Don't you see that I'm working on something important? I'm busy here doing my research." Jiraiya said in a serious tone, trying to guilt the kid into leaving him alone.

'Still the same old pervert.' Naruto thought to himself as he smiled and chuckled inwardly at the old toad sage's perverted antics.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto stated, getting his introduction over with and the attention of the hermit in the process. Once his Name was introduced, Naruto noticed Jiraiya's change in composure by how he was taking a moment to seriously process the information given to him.

'The son of the fourth. My, he has grown.' Jiraiya thought to himself as he kept his face straight. However mentally, Jiraiya was ecstatic to meet his godson and see the growth he has made in becoming a fine ninja.

"So, why are you here disturbing me?" Jiraiya asked, truly curious to what could have caused the young genin to approach him.

"Have you spoken to the old-man Hokage, yet?" Naruto asked bluntly, in hopes of understanding how much information needed to be revealed to his godfather.

"Well no, but what exactly has the Hokage got to do with any thing?" Jiraiya asked genuinely confused and laced suspicion in his voice regarding the involvement of his sensei in the blonde's sudden presence.

Naruto didn't answer but quickly clapped his hand on either side of Jiraiya face. Naruto poured all the memories from his mind and into Jiraiya's. All the events unfolding in his mind occurred swiftly, and caused Jiraiya to stand in shock from what he just witnessed.

He gradually began to recognize that Naruto held countless memories of the two of them spending quality time together.

Furthermore, Jiraiya watched how the memories had shown the growth of Naruto and then suddenly moving to him and… Tsunade? Both blondes were crying excessively over his death.

It became apparent to him that he had impacted the lives of the two blondes greatly and he could not at the moment fully comprehend it. The toad sage also witnessed Nagato, the former child of prophecy, destroying Konoha.

Then, sudden images appeared of a huge ninja alliance, composed of the five main elemental villages, fighting against Obito Uchiha, an enormous ten-tailed beast, and a resurrected Madara Uchiha.

Naruto kept the memories flowing as long as possible. He had wanted Jiraiya to completely understand the predicament that they would be facing in the near future. Thus, the blonde genin tried to make sure not to miss a single moment before letting go of the old pervert.

Once released from Naruto's hold, Jiraiya stared blankly at the smiling genin and allowed many emotions to overwhelm him simultaneously. The legendary sennin was at a lost for words, he truly did not know how to respond or to begin the next conversation with his godson.

After ten minutes of no response, Naruto, not being one to wait patiently for too long, seated himself on top of a nearby patch of grass and began to pluck at the green grass. A few more moments passed and the blonde genin began to concern himself with the old hermit's condition.

Naruto gradually began to panic at the possibility of having caused a stroke to occur to the old pervert, but Jiraiya had sat down beside him, right before the blonde was going to check on him. With Jiraiya sitting right next to him, Naruto could only watch intently as the toad sage peered down towards him with a firm gaze.

By looking into the onyx eyes of the hermit, Naruto recognized curiosity and bewilderment hidden deep within the two orbs. The genin was about to speak, but Jiraiya had beaten him to it.

"So… it seems you really did go through a lot. I also understand that you are unable to find out how you came back to your past, which is our present. There must be a reason to it, but I do believe you will be able to change the future of this time line in our favour." Jiraiya muttered blankly.

It was clearly evident that the Gallant Jiraiya of the Three Legendary Sannin was still in shock from all the events showed to him by the young blonde.

"I know Ero-sennin." Naruto said solemnly. Naruto understood well that the future of the ninja world rested in his actions and that any decision could potentially destroy any hope of saving the world from obliteration.

"Baka! Learn to show respect to your elders!" Jiraiya said in an annoyed tone. Irritation showed on his face for being called such a disgraceful name, which crudely represented his noble status as a Sannin. Although he wouldn't openly admit it, Jiraiya found the nickname as a clever combination of his noble title with the title that he was notoriously known for, being a super-pervert.

"If you stop being a creepy pervert, then, and only then, will I show respect to you. Believe it! Until then, you are Ero-sennin." Naruto enthusiastically shouted back, which only frustrated Jiraiya more.

Throughout the whole argument, Naruto couldn't help but keep a sincere smile on his face, knowing that he had Jiraiya back with him. Even if they were arguing, it was these moments spent arguing with the old and perverted hermit that Naruto cherished the most and would never forget.

"Heh. Kid, you are a funny one. So, it seems we will be going on a journey after Orochimaru's destruction in Konoha. Of course, such brutal destruction will be prevented this time around. Guess I will also let you lead the way to finding Tsunade, when the time is right." Jiraiya said with a wide grin. Naruto couldn't help but smile at his godfather's comments regarding their actions in the close future.

"Sure thing, Ero-sennin. Though, I don't know what to do about our two and a half years trip. We were gone a long time from Konoha in order to steer clear from the Akatsuki's sight and to train in preparation of their inevitable attack. Also, I'm already trained up. Plus, this time I will prevent Sasuke from leaving village for that snake-teme. He is already a lot happier than in my previous time line, so there is no way in hell that I am going to lose him." Naruto said happily, stating clearly his concern regarding their leave of absence from Konoha and Sasuke's departure to Orochimaru.

"Hey, Naruto. You're going to have to refresh my memory on those two topics. There were an awful lot of memories you showed me. It is still all just a blur to me, with the occasional, clear picture of future events." Jiraiya stated clumsily for failing to remember those specific events.

Naruto simply sighed at his master's statement. Nevertheless, he slowly placed both of his hands on the back of Jiraiya's head.

After a moment, the Sannin's mind was shown everything concerning Sasuke's departure to train with Orochimaru and his long trip with Naruto away from Konoha.

After sensing that Jiraiya had witnessed all the information relating to those two topics, Naruto withdrew his arms from Jiraiya's head to allow the toad sage to regain his composure.

"Ah. There we go. Well, we can still go away together if you desire or I will remain here with you in the village. When the time for our departure presents itself, I will let you decide on the course of our actions." Jiraiya sagely proclaimed, understanding Naruto would have a better comprehension of what would be best in saving the future.

"Oh, good. It looks like Fu is coming towards us!" Naruto cheerfully asserted after noticing Fu approaching both Jiraiya and himself.

However, due to closing his eyes from joy, Naruto failed to detect the sleazy grin that was beginning to appear on the perverted hermit's face.

"Hey, Are you going to tap that? I didn't know you were such a player, Naruto. I'm so proud of you. You truly are my student!" Jiraiya began in a teasing whisper and then produced anime tears, overjoyed that the little blonde was truly the successor to his title.

"What the hell, Ero-sennin! Get rid of your twisted fantasy. You really need help in pulling that sick head of yours out of your ass. I'm far too young to be doing that. Plus, you know how I have strong feelings for Sakura. I will never give up on her love! Believe it!" Naruto said angrily. The blonde was slightly pissed at the white-haired sennin's statement, even if Jiraiya was teasing him.

"Naruto, my boy. You are not yet in a relationship with Sakura. This means that you shouldn't limit yourself to only one girl. There are millions in this wide world of ours. Thus, you should try a variety of 'exotic' fruit before divulging on one alone forever." Jiraiya said quickly. No sooner did he say that than a puff of smoke appeared in the place where he was standing.

The toad sage may possibly be the King of all Super-Perverts, but he was no idiot. He deeply understood when someone unleashed and directed their killing intent towards him, after one of his perverted actions or comments.

Furthermore, Jiraiya may have loved Naruto as a grandson, but he was not going to allow himself to freely feel the wrath of all nine bijus.

"Who was that man, standing next to you just now?" Fu said as she stood next to Naruto. The blonde genin began to rise from the ground, trying his best to hide his fierce blush from the Sannin's previous comments.

"Eh, he is just a pervert I know." Naruto said in an annoyed tone. The boy was still irritated that his godfather used Fu's arrival as an excuse to escape his punishment. The blonde made a mental note to punish the perverted Sannin, on a later day.

"Oh, okay… Any ways, I thought that maybe we could get to know each other more? With us being fellow jinchurikis and all." Fu asked cheerfully, awaiting Naruto's response.

Once Fu said those words, Naruto merely grinned at her before flopping back down to the luscious grass beneath his feat. He gestured to Fu to take a seat next to him and began speaking, after she was sitting right next to him on the grass.

"I would love that. Tell me about yourself. I'm guessing that, just like me, your upbringing wasn't the best due to the jinchuriki status, which we both posses." Naruto said swiftly in order to get to the point. He wanted to clarify and have a better understanding of Fu's predicament in her village.

"Well, in my village, I have always been hated by the villagers and citizens for containing the seventh tailed beast inside me. Anyway, I plan to leave soon in pursuit of finding a new home." Fu said in a hopeful tone. In her mind, she desperately wished for a better life than the one she owns in Takigakure.

"If you really want to escape from your village, then why don't you move here?" Naruto carefully asked, pondering how Fu would respond to his proposal to move to Konoha.

"Uh, are you seriously asking me to move here, to Konoha? I don't think I'd be accepted here." Fu said in a sad tone, knowing that the life of a jinchuriki despite the location is one full of pain and sadness.

However, she mentally hoped that the blonde jinchuriki's statement was true. Nothing would make her happier than living with a person whom also understands the pain that comes with being the vessel of a biju.

"Don't worry about your citizenship. It just so happens that the Hokage and I share a close bond. All I need to do is explain to him why you wish to move to Konoha. I guarantee that he would let you become a citizen of Konoha instead of going through the long and boring application process. Believe it!" Naruto said confidently and cheerfully to the green-haired kunoichi.

Fu was amazed that a stranger, despite being a fellow jinchuriki, would go as far as help her become a citizen of his village.

"You'd…you'd do that for me? Why? You hardly even know me. For all you know, I could be a spy sent by my village to acquire the secrets of Konoha during the exams. How can you have so much confidence and faith in me." Fu stated while looking into his cerulean eyes. She wanted to both test and ensure that what he actually claimed was real.

Fu did not want to risk her full faith on a person, whom could easily betray her later for his personal gain.

"Well, you are genuinely nice. Also, despite how you act tough on the outside, I know that deep inside is a little girl, whom is crying for help and only wants acceptance from others. Am I right? That's why, I am absolutely certain that you are not a spy. Most of all, I reckon we, jinchuriki, should stick together. Don't you agree? If we can't find happiness, acceptance, and closure from those around us, then we might as well stick together and handle the darkness of life as a type of family." Naruto said happily with a wide and bright smile on his face, indicating how strongly he supported his statement.

Gazing at Fu, Naruto noticed that no amount of doubt remain in the female jinchuriki and spotted her complexion brighten from the words he declared.

"Yeah! You're right, Naruto! You'll basically be... my jinchuriki Brother!" Fu said excitedly, feeling overjoyed at having created a strong bond between her and the blond jinchuriki.

Fu then uncross her legs and held her two fists close to her chest in joy. The kunoichi was still in utter disbelief at having someone to support her, from this point on.

"Heh. I like the sound of that, so you'll be my jinchuriki Sister, correct?" Naruto asked curiously, while wondering mentally if he grasped the logic of her reasoning accurately.

"Duh! Of course! We will be family now!" Fu said happily and clearly, so Naruto could grasp how strongly she felt about their new bond.

Not waiting any longer, Naruto shot up and firmly gripped Fu's hand. He was glad that Fu had agreed to stay in Konoha, and decided on making each other Brother and sister, in regard to their jinchuriki status.

"That settles it. Let's go see the old man now!" Naruto excitedly said before he yanked Fu's hand. The sudden action by the blonde genin prevented the kunoichi from giving her answer, but she merely moved her legs in order to keep up with Naruto's quick speed.

Fu waited outside the room as she waited anxiously for Naruto to call her into the Hokage's office. Despite, the reassuring claim from Naruto, Fu was still doubtful of receiving citizenship to Konoha so quickly.

Meanwhile inside the room, Naruto stood facing the Hokage and the two males were discussing Fu's transfer into Konoha. Naruto was currently trying his best to convince the old man on approving Fu's citizenship.

"Are you sure it's a wise decision, Naruto. If she found out the truth, then that would be another person aware of the future." Sarutobi wisely asked Naruto. The Hokage then took a long drag of his pipe, to alleviate the stress of deciding on whom to inform of the future.

"Sheesh! Old man have some trust in me. I've proven myself more than I need to. Don't you think?" Naruto said in an annoyed tone.

Naruto was beginning to become frustrated at how strongly the old Hokage was questioning him on the issue relating to informing Fu of the future.

"Yes, Naruto. You have proven yourself. Keep your panties on. Fine bring her in, and I will grant her citizenship. However, you will need to move into an apartment closer to the Hokage tower, that has enough space for the both of you. Also, after approving her citizenship, leave a clone here to sign the documents for the deed of the apartment." The old Sarutobi said in a tired tone, mentally berating himself for staying as Hokage, for such a long period of time after Minato's death.

With the discussion between Naruto and Hiruzen over, Naruto was now allowed to call Fu into the office.

Once entering the Hokage's office, Hiruzen greeted her and Fu bowed as a sign of respect to the elder Hokage. With the formalities out of the way, the old Hokage began to inform Fu of his decision.

"Naruto has explained to me everything and I hereby grant you citizenship. You shall receive the documents in a few days, confirming this officially. From now on, you will be living with Naruto. Your new identity will be that of Naruto's half sister due to how he enlightened me of the new jinchuriki relationship, that you two have... created. As the Third Hokage of Konoha, I welcome you to the village, Fu. After the exams, you will have missions awaiting you as the new addition to team seven." The third Hokage spoke wisely.

After speaking, Hiruzen smiled gently at the former Takigakure genin in order to prove to her of his honesty.

The Sarutobi was not expecting much from the young green haired girl; the most he was anticipating was a formal bow and gratitude for approving her citizenship.

However, he was completely caught off guard when she suddenly shot towards him and gripped him tightly into a strong embrace before he could blink.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama for your acceptance. You truly do not understand how much your approval means to me. I will become the best chunin, that Konoha has ever seen, once I obtain the rank!" Fu said happily in response to being kindly received into Konoha by the third Hokage.

She felt tears in her eyes and allowed them to roll down her face.

Hiruzen gently returned the embrace and patted her gently on her back. Unknown to Fu, Hiruzen, having overlooked Naruto's childhood, understood the difficulties she must have faced for something out of her control.

The life of a jinchuriki, regardless of the village, was painful and full of loneliness. However, with Fu's sudden reaction, the Hokage began to contemplate in wonder of her personality being identical to the blonde genin.

'Oh, please Kami. Don't tell me that she is the female version of Naruto.' Sarutobi dreadfully thought to himself. One active troublemaker was a handful, but controlling two would appear impossible.

At this moment, Hiruzen sighed in relief. He was grateful that he would no longer remain Hokage after the Chunin Exams and that these two jinchurikis would be Tsunade's problem.

"Thanks so much, old man! Fu let's go!" Naruto eagerly said and summoned a clone to fill in the paper work.

Then he quickly grabbed the key to the new apartment before grabbing Fu's hand. Together, the pair of jinchurikis rushed out of the door excitedly to see their new apartment.

Sarutobi only watched the display between the two and then turned his attention to the clone. He began to inform it on how to properly fill out the form, while he moved over to sit in his seat.

'Thank, kami. Only a few more weeks and Tsunade will be taking over as Hokage. I desperately need to retire for the second time. I'm getting too old for this job.' Sarutobi tiredly thought to himself.

After mentally debating what kept him as Hokage, Hiruzen came to the conclusion that, if not for his undying love for his village, he would have passed the job onto someone new, a few years ago.

After a long walk with Fu, in locating their new apartment, the two jinchurikis arrived at a fancy apartment that was already furnished; it also contained modern decorations of high quality.

Soon after, Naruto placed both Fu's and his luggage against the wall and returned to admiring their new apartment. However, Fu, whom walked out from their new kitchen, interrupted Naruto's firm admiration.

"Naruto, this place is amazing! Oh. Can I pick which room is mine?" Fu asked excitedly. The green-haired genin began to bounce around the apartment, giving the appearance of a child, whom was recently told they could eat chocolates and sweets for desert.

"Haha, sure! Go ahead Fu. This is as much your home as it is mine." Naruto said happily as he watched Fu rush into the corridor.

Naruto looked round to see the white leathered sofas, the thin glass table, the black marbled kitchen with silver metallic cupboards.

No matter how many times he gazed at his new apartment, Naruto could stop believing that this was actually real and not a dream.

'Man, the old man did me a solid here. I got to return the favour, somehow.' Naruto thought to himself and then began to heavily ponder on how he could best display his appreciation towards the elder Hokage.

Fu came back to where Naruto was as she threw her arms around his waist. Fu's action sincerely shocked the blonde. Naruto had rarely ever been showed such affection in his entire life and did not how to react at first.

"Thank you, Naruto, for being a part of my family. In less than an hour, I've experienced the most happiness, I've ever had, in my entire life." Fu said happily, not afraid to show Naruto how much his gestures have impacted her.

She slowly pulled away with teary eyes, causing her face to look drain and tired. Naruto only smiled affectionately back towards Fu, reassuring her that he was equally as happy.

"Fu! I'm glad that I've gained a Sister! It feels amazing to be sharing a home with someone. The only thing else to be said is, thank you, Fu, for letting me in and for allowing me to be a part of your family!" Naruto said happily as he wiped Fu's tears away and Fu nodded in agreement.

After their embrace, the two began to take their belonging to their respective rooms. It didn't take long for the two to settle into their rooms due to the few possessions each jinchuuriki owned.

Once they finished unpacking, Naruto realized that it would be best for Fu to become better acquainted with the rest of team seven.

"It's time for you to meet the rest of our team. Our sensei and Sasuke are away training, so I doubt we will see them until the chunin exam. Meanwhile, Sakura is kind and friendly to others. I am positive that you two will get along just fine!" Naruto said happily, especially thrilled to see his beloved Sakura.

Fu excitedly followed him out of their new home and in the direction of Sakura's home. She honestly could not wait to meet the pinkette and develop a close bond with her as well.

After her conversation with Naruto, Sakura took her advice and started to relax in her room. Currently, she was seen dressed in her new attire, which she had spent all morning trying to find.

'Now, I look just the way I appear in Naruto's time when I'm older. And I must say… I have good taste!' Sakura thought to herself, while grinning at how the outfit complemented her figure and complexion.

The pinkette looked at her reflection in the mirror again and eyed her pink skirt, the black tight spandex shorts hidden underneath, and the red sleeveless top with a zip at the front of the dress.

'All that's left are these black gloves. I wonder how Naruto is going to react once he sees me in this.' Sakura thought to herself as she pulled on the comfortable soft gloves. She twirled once more and giggled in happiness at her lovely appearance.

Sakura took one last glance at admiring her reflection before she felt someone place a hand on her shoulder. On instinct, Sakura immediately went to scream at being touched by a stranger.

However, another hand had clamped down on her mouth, preventing her from speaking and stirring trouble. While struggling in her captor's grasp, she heard a familiar voice speak her name.

"Sakura! It's me, Naruto! Relax, I just came to see you." Naruto said as he let go of Sakura and stood there waiting for her reaction. Once she was free, he immediately felt a thump hit his head.

In response, Naruto held up his hand to soothe the spot where Sakura had just hit him. Afterwards, the blonde looked up to his team mate's porcelain face.

"Baka! I could have killed you. Don't sneak up on people like that!" Sakura said angrily before noticing Naruto's firm gaze on her.

Automatically, her anger started to diminish and instead she felt her cheeks slightly redden from the attention Naruto was giving her. At this moment, Naruto took an opportunity to notice Sakura's current appearance.

'She found the same clothing that she wears in my timeline. I wonder if she did it specifically for me?' Naruto pondered this to himself.

Either way, he came to the conclusion that he could never get enough of staring at his beautiful team mate. After a long silence between the two genin, Naruto found the courage to speak how he felt about Sakura's new appearance.

"You… look beautiful, Sakura. Your just as lovely as your future self from what I remember." Naruto said nervously as he met Sakura's gaze.

To his shock, once he spoke those words, Sakura's already redden face turned a heavy crimson from embarrassment. She quickly faced away in order to escape his stare and further inspection by the blonde.

Naruto was expecting a punch to the face, but Sakura's reaction completely confused him. The blonde was about to question his team mates' reaction; however, the genin shook his head as he remembered why he was there.

If he had only paid more attention to his team mate, then he would have heard Sakura mumble under her breath, thank you.

"Sakura I have so much to tell you. I have a jinchuuriki Sister! I know, it sounds confusing. She's not my real Sister, but she is a jinchuriki, like me. Therefore, we are related through our biju, so she is like my half sister. Her name is Fu! Remember, she was the green-haired and orange-eyed kunoichi from Takigakure, whom fought against Choji and the sound genin. We spoke about lots of stuff before I realized that she should move here. Now she lives with me, in our new apartment, and she will also be on our team from now on! She's really nice, but she seems to have experienced a worst child hood than me. She literally had no friends to support her unlike me! So, I want you to meet her!" Naruto said in a fast paced tone. He was short of breath immediately after his speech.

Sakura was about to protest that she didn't hear everything that Naruto had said, but the blond suddenly picked Sakura up bridal style.

He immediately leaped out of the window and towards the top of the building across from Sakura's house. He landed in front of a perplexed Fu, whom was looking at the two team mates oddly.,

Not letting Naruto go unpunished for his sudden action, Sakura had slapped his shoulder for yanking her out like that.

Naruto instantly apologized to Sakura and promised to make it up to her, before gently letting her down from his protective arms.

Once on the floor, Sakura noticed the kunoichi in front of her, and took greater notice that, just like Naruto previously stated, she was the same genin who defeated Choji and Dosu in the preliminaries.

"Hi Sakura! I'm Fu and I'm also your new team mate. I guess Naruto filled you in on everything." Fu said cheerfully as she extended a hand out to the pinkette. Sakura greeted Fu with a kind smile and then gladly shook Fu's hand.

"Hi Fu. I'm glad we have a new addition to our team. Yes, Naruto... briefly told me everything. You're also sharing a new home with Naruto now. That's great to hear. You'll come to love Konoha!" Sakura said happily as she let go of Fu's hand. From what Naruto could see, the two female genin were going to get along just like he predicted.

Suddenly, Naruto senses a chakra signature belonging to familiar pervert. He looked around and noticed Jiraiya standing on top of a nearby building, waiving towards him.

"Erm, sorry girls. I got to go, Fu. You and Sakura can go hang out and get to know each other better. I've just got to do something. See you two later!" Naruto said quickly as leapt off towards his pervert of a master, leaving both girls alone.

Sakura, noticing Fu's concern for her team mate, decide to put a hand on her should in order to calm the kunoichi.

"Don't worry, you'll notice that both Naruto and our other team mate, Sasuke, both disappear suddenly." Sakura said pleasantly as the two female began to walk around Konoha.

"What is it, Ero-sennin? I was enjoying myself with Sakura and Fu." Naruto asked, upset at the pervert for interrupting his bonding with both Sakura and Fu.

"Kid, I wished you wouldn't call me that. The more you call me that, the more people are going to think that I really am a pervert." Jiraiya said in an annoyed tone, heavily irritated that the blonde would not stop calling him that shameful name.

"Why, what's the problem. You're a pervert, so I don't see a problem. 'Ero-sennin'." Naruto said with a sly grin. He intended to irritate the toad hermit even more by making sure to emphasize Ero-sennin.

Enraged at being mocked, Jiraiya struck his right fist at Naruto's head before calming himself down.

"Brat. Any ways, here is the plan for Orochimaru's invasion during the Chunin Exam Finals. Like before, when the time comes, I want you to still focus on going after Gaara. However, unlike the last time, I will make it my job to protect old man Hokage from Orochimaru. So, no matter what, do not let yourself be swayed. It's clearly important that you change Gaara for the better after fighting against him. This way, he will become the Kazekage just like in your previous timeline. Do you understand?" Jiraiya asked, hoping that the blonde genin wouldn't argue with him and agree to the plan.

"I understand Ero-sennin, but I really have to go. Trust me, there is something I just remembered that I need to do." Naruto said quickly, not having time to explain to Jiraiya where he needed to go.

With that said, Jiraiya watched Naruto leap away and head towards the hospital.

'To think, Naruto was the child of prophecy all along.' Jiraiya thought to himself happily, knowing that his disciple will one day bring back peace to the ninja world.

After regaining his composure, a mischievous grin spread across the old pervert's face, and the toad sage began his journey, back to Konoha's hot springs, in pursuit of further 'research'.

Arriving at the hospital, Naruto used some chakra to climb up the wall until he reached Rock's Lee's window. Once there, he watched Gaara's right hand lower towards Lee's unconscious face.

It was clear to Naruto, that just like last time, Gaara intended to brutally murder Lee, in his sleep.

'Kill! Kill for Mother!' Gaara psychotically thought to himself. His sand was about to move toward the comatose genin and end his life, but his focus was disturbed due to his sand blocking several miniature shurikens from impaling him.

Gaara slowly turned to face the person that prevented him from killing the sleeping genin, but his face turned to disgust as he glared against the blue eyes of the blonde genin from the preliminaries.

"You." Gaara said in an emotionless voice, but, before he could say more, the sand genin was interrupted by a punch to his gut from Naruto. The punch had sent him flying several feet away from Lee and Gaara landed against the wall next to the door.

The redhead was mentally debating how the blonde managed to move passed his sand. Throughout the whole incident, both genin kept their gaze on each other in anticipation of the other's next attack.

However, at that moment, Shikamaru entered through the door, after hearing abnormal noises coming from Lee's room. The Nara genius automatically noticed Gaara beginning to recover his balance, while Naruto stood protectively in front of Lee, in a defensive taijutsu stance.

"What's going on here, Naruto? Why is the sand shinobi from the preliminaries in Lee's room?" The cloud gazing genin sternly asked the blonde. The Nara made the assumption that the sand genin came to finish off Lee due to being unable to in the preliminaries, but he wanted clarification from his fellow Leaf shinobi.

However, what perplexed Shikamaru the most was the fact that Naruto was here and appeared as if he knew Gaara was going to attempt at killing Lee. He mentally brushed that aside and decide that Lee's situation took priority against Naruto's arrival.

"He was going to kill Lee." Naruto simply stated to the Nara as he focused his full attention on Gaara.

"If I'm correct, then that would be a declaration of war against Konoha by Suna. You don't want that now. Do you?" Shikamaru logically responded in order to stop the killing intent radiating from Gaara.

"I do not care. I only wish to kill this boy. If you interfere with my desire, then I will kill you both." Gaara said void of emotion. He was not afraid of Shikamaru's deduction regarding what would fall upon Suna if he were to kill Lee.

"Try it punk. You'll have to go through me before you harm my friend." Naruto exclaimed while pointed to Lee.

However, before the conflict could escalate further, another shinobi entered the room wearing the same spandex and leg warmers Lee was seen wearing. The figure was identified as Might Guy, Rock Lee's sensei.

"I suggest you leave this room immediately unless you wish to end up here." Guy dryly stated as he stared at Gaara with fierce anger evident in his eyes. He would not allow this genin to crush the fire of youth in his student's eyes.

"Ugh!" Gaara said as he held his head in pain. Gaara's sand slowly pulled back into the gourd that was tied to his back.

After all the sand returned, the jinchuriki walked out of the room. However, right at the exit, the sand genin looked them all in the eyes before speaking one last time.

"I'll make sure to kill you all." Gaara impassively claimed and walked out the door, not to be seen again until the day of the Chunin Exam Finals.

"What a freak." Shikamaru uttered after he made sure Gaara was out of earshot. Despite his confidence against the redhead, Shikamaru feared the killing intent emitted by the genin.

If not for Guy's arrival, then he truly wasn't sure whether he would of survived a confrontation with Gaara.

Once Gaara was out of range, Guy checked up on Lee to confirm his safety and left right after.

After which, Shikamaru gave Naruto a nod before exiting the room, leaving Naruto alone with Lee. With all the other individuals gone, Naruto shifted his attention to Lee.

Acting fast, Naruto activated his biju mode and leaned over towards Lee. He began by placing a hand over Lee's injured leg and another on his broken arm.

Soon after, Naruto channelled green medical chakra and directed it to the immobilized areas on Lee's body. After making sure Lee's injured leg and arm absorbed a good amount of the chakra, Naruto pulled away from the unconscious genin.

'However you look at it, even with Tsunade's healing, your leg and arm won't fully heal ever again. With the chakra I sent you, over time your leg will be back to perfect condition, Bushy Brows. Though, it will take several months.' Naruto thought to himself, content that his friend will be able to receive a full recuperation, this time around.

After regaining his composure, Naruto left the hospital in pursuit of spending more quality time with two certain kunoichis, before he began preparing for the Chunin Exams Finals.

**End of chapter 9. Please dudes & dudettes may you leave a review on your way out on your thoughts and feelings on this chapter.**

**A special shout out goes to FOXJ NS 4EVER, my beta, for looking over the errors in my story.**

**As long as he is my beta, I don't have to concern myself heavily regarding errors and the flow of the story because I know he has my back. If it weren't for him, then my story wouldn't be written half as well. It's his reviewing and editing of my story that allows you, my reader, to enjoy the plot of my story to the fullest! :) My gratitude and appreciation for his above and beyond help in unmeasurable! **


	10. Chapter 10: The Final Exam! Part 1!

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Naruto, the original characters, or the original story that Kishimoto Masashi made. **

**Author's note: SORRY! I know it as been two weeks since the last chapter. So I shall post the first part now. Enjoy! Though you will notice the chapters went from 3.5k minimum words to 8.5k in this one and if it weren't for this chapter being split into two, it would be 15k. **

**Chapter Ten: The Final Exam! Part 1!**

A month had passed since the end of the preliminary exams, and now the day of the final exam had arrived. During this short period of time, Sakura and Fu learned much about the other and got along quite well with one another. While informing the other female of their personal goals, both girls discovered that they shared a few similarities. Each girl despised being seen weak by others, and therefore held a strong passion in becoming stronger.

The pair not only aspired to prove their strength to their village but also to those who underestimated them. Furthermore, despite being extremely stubborn and possessing the tendency to quickly lose their patience, both wished to protect their precious people with all their might. Nevertheless, the two kunoichi along with Naruto spent practically everyday together, deepening their bond of friendship.

Other than a few occasions, in which Naruto left to speak with the perverted Sannin or the Sandaime, the three genin were inseparable. None of them had seen Sasuke or Kakashi yet, due to the Sharingan wielder's unknown training location. Although they did not receive an opportunity to meet prior to the final exam, all three genin understood the reasoning behind the sudden departure and secrecy. After all, Naruto, Sasuke, and Fu were all participants in the final exams and might fight against each other during the course of the tournament.

At this point, the less they knew of each other's techniques, the more advantage they would gain against each other during their fights. However, in spite of this, it was evident, to the remaining members of Team Seven, that the real reason for Kakashi's private tutoring of Sasuke was because of how Sasuke faced a far stronger opponent than Fu or Naruto. Sasuke's survival against Gaara demanded that he be trained to match the speed of Gaara's sand, in order to avoid capture. Also, the Uchiha would need to learn how to pierce Gaara's ultimate defense thereby inflicting damage onto the sand genin in the process.

With the day of the Chunin Exam Finals upon Konoha, the atmosphere around the village as well as the citizens in the village was ecstatic. Most of the villagers and off-duty shinobi chose the day to witness the finals, leaving the streets of the usually active village empty. The arena, for the final part of the Chunin Exam, was packed with several royal diplomats from allied nations, ninja from nearby villages, and of course the citizens of the Leaf. The only spectators missing, not being able to attend, were those on guard duty and the students at the academy.

The majority of those in the audience had heard rumour of how Neji Hyuga, the young prodigy from the Hyuga clan, and Sasuke Uchiha, the beloved heir to the infamous Uchiha clan, were competing in the exam. Those who were attending, for simply the presence of those two individuals, were anxious to not only see the two young genin use their clan's kekkei genkai but also to witness them defeat their opponents. While many in the audience focused on how the upcoming match would turnout, Jiraiya used the excitement, radiating from the arena, to sneak in undetected.

The old hermit took a seat in the stands closest to the Kage box, knowing he would need to quickly reach the roof once the invasion began. His current location ensured that he reaches the roof in time to provide his former sensei the necessary assistance in battling Orochimaru. The white-haired Sannin concealed himself under a peculiar disguise, which at any other time he would laugh at and deem comical if he were not the one whom was wearing it at the moment. Currently, the toad sage wore an extravagant white kimono, which decorated several pink lotuses on the front and an image of a chibi toad flowing down the back of his kimono.

The pervert also sported black horn-rimmed glasses with attached fake eyebrows, large plastic nose, and a bushy, black moustache. To top the disguise, Jiraiya donned a black Afro wig and held a sturdy cane in his right hand. That day, those seating near the Sannin could only stare in wonder on the man who dared dress in such an odd and ridiculous manner. Being the only member of Team 7 not participating in the Finals, Sakura entered the stadium to support her team mates and had reached the inside of the arena at the same time as Ino.

After greeting each other, both kunoichi decide to watch the exams together near the top of the stands. While waiting for the start of the Finals, the pair gossiped on the events of the past months and their respective opinion on how well their friends would perform in the exam. During the time that the arena filled up with more viewers, old Hiruzen Sarutobi looked over the crowd from his position in the Hokage box and smiled at the genuine joy shown on citizens, foreign merchants, and royal diplomats spectating the event.

It was times like these that the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha truly was grateful for being the leader of the village. The long period of peace he had managed to maintain, after the Yondaime's death, was an accomplishment on itself. However, the Sarutobi was brought out of his thoughts with the arrival of the Yondaime Kazekage and his bodyguards. To any person, the Kazekage appeared and acted how he normally was known for; however, the Sandaime Hokage knew from the memories Naruto had shown, that it was secretly Orochimaru, using the body of the Kazekage as a disguise.

Be that as it may, Hiruzen convinced himself that it was vital for him to portray a façade of having no previous knowledge of Orochimaru's presence until the invasion began. Therefore, both Kages took a turn in greeting and bowing toward each other in a sign of respect for the other's village. After acknowledging each other, the two men began to discuss the outcomes of the matches and current issues occurring within their respective villages. They were however cut off my the firm voice of Genma Shiranui, a tokubetsu jonin and the proctor for the Chunin Exams Final, addressing to the audience the start of the Finals.

As the proctor of the final part of the Chunin Exams, Genma was required to be in the arena ten minutes prior to the start of the exam. While waiting to start the exam, the jonin thought to himself on how, out of all the qualified shinobi under the Sandaime, he was chosen to be the proctor of the Finals as Hayate's replacement. As time passed by, Genma noticed in particular how the arena was now fully immerse with spectators, taking up almost all the seats and that it was time to signal the start of the exams. With that thought, Genma took a deep breath before speaking into his headset, silencing the crowd.

"Attention! Welcome to the Finals of the Chunin Exams." Shouted Genma in his headset, pausing in wait for the cheers and screams of the arena, which will erupt in any moment. Immediately after his announcement, the whole arena exploded with ongoing roars of excitement and chants in regard to the beginning of the Finals. Taking a minute to recompose himself, Genma once again speaks into his headset, in hopes of announcing the start of the first match.

"With that settled, will Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuga please come forth to start off the first match of the Chunin Exam Finals." Genma asked, looking around for both the blonde genin and the elder genin in the contestants' booth. Both Naruto and Neji, upon hearing their respective name called by Genma, leaped from their position, landing gracefully on the arena and opposite to each other. Throughout their little performance, many shouts could be heard from the citizens of Konoha in favour of the prodigy defeating the so-called "dead last".

Whereas, besides those who befriended Naruto, only occasional screams could be heard supporting the young blonde, mainly from foreign spectators whom were oblivious to the fact that Naruto had the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed deep inside him.

"First match of the Chunin Exam Finals: Naruto Uzumaki vs. Neji Hyuga. Begin!" called out Genma, now that both genin were facing each other in the arena. The tokubetsu jonin instantly jumped far away from the two in order to give them the proper space to battle each other.

Once the jonin was out of reach, the battle between Naruto and Neji began and the audience was expecting the two to fight each other with out delay. However, instead of a rushed attack by either boy, the two genin were standing still not moving a single muscle away from their current position. The only action against each other, that the audience could see, was the intense glare that both individuals gave another, thereby showing how the two were engaged in a mental battle. Noticing that neither was intending to make the first strike toward the other, Naruto decide he would attempt at provoking the Hyuga genius into losing his composure and attacking first.

"What are you waiting for destiny eyes? Are you going to stare at me all day or are you going to come at me with full force? Because I didn't know that the all-seeing Neji was afraid of little old me!" Naruto said smugly, knowing full well that his remark would drive the genin into rushing without thought.

If there was one thing that Naruto Uzumaki knew about Neji, it was that mocking the genius's strength would force him into blindly charging his opponent. The boy simply had too much pride, at this moment in time, to let anyone dare escape him without facing his wrath. Unfortunately for Neji, his rush was all Naruto needed to have the Hyuga in the palm of his hand. Believing Naruto would prove himself to be not much of a threat, Neji smirked at the blonde prior to activating his byakugan.

As Neji dashed towards him, Naruto thought of how, in his past timeline, any taijutsu match against a Hyuga was bound to be extremely difficult. However, the power he obtained in his past would allow him to easily avoid Neji's assault. Despite how simple it would be to win against Neji, Naruto knew that enduring the barrage was the only way to purify Neji's hatred and cause the Hyuga genin to change into a gentle and caring person.

With the battle now on its way, the audience carefully watched on as Neji performed the Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms jutsu on Naruto. The precision of each hit caused Naruto to fall onto the ground in agony from Neji's attack, coughing up blood in the process. Furthermore, exactly like in the past, Neji began to lecture the blonde jinchuriki on how a genius with natural talent will always prevail over a loser whom simply works hard. With his lecture over, Neji decide to walk away and presumed that there was no way the battle could continue due to blocking every single one of Naruto's chakra points.

However, to his surprise, Naruto gradually pushed himself off the ground; the blonde's legs were shaking from having to endure the incredible pain inflicted throughout the body. Seeing how Naruto's spirit was not breaking, Neji considered it would be best to extinguish what little courage remained in the blonde before said ninja caused any further damage to his body.

"Just stay on your knees. I have successfully blocked all your chakra points. As such, there is no possible way in which you can defeat me without your use of chakra. Giving up would save you the trouble of suffering more pain, besides I have no quarrels against you Naruto." Neji exclaimed towards the younger genin, hoping that Naruto would see his reasoning and accept his fate.

"You're right. YOU may not have a feud with me, yet I have one against you. It is because of that issue, that I will not give up until I beat you. Knocking some sense into you once and for all. Believe it!" Naruto passionately responded back.

The young jinchuriki was fully intended on showing Neji how fate does not control a person's destiny, but in fact, every single individual possesses the free will to choose and make his or her own destiny.

"What are you talking about? " Neji asked curiously, quite shock at the statement the blonde made.

For once, the Hyuga prodigy had no conception on exactly what the younger genin was referring to. Personally, he never once had any interaction whatsoever with Naruto until the Chunin Exams, so how could Naruto possibly have an issue with him. Besides, Naruto was immobile now with the loss of his chakra, but his words conveyed otherwise. The words Neji heard sounded as if Naruto was not done and could still win.

Overall, the situation made no sense to Neji; as a result, the elder genin had no idea how to respond except for listening intensively for Naruto's next words.

"Why is it that you… in spite of your powerful eyes, would mentally attack Hinata? Even so far as attempting to kill her after the match was over. Don't you see how much pain your causing Hinata and the hatred that is consuming you. Neji, you won't win. Your hatred will only spark more until all that is left is suffering and pain. Despite the differences between the two of you, your family." Naruto wisely stated, hoping it would be enough to convince the persistent Hyuga.

"Do not involve yourself with matters that do not concern you. Hinata deserved everything that came her way that day for being nothing weak and a coward. It would be best for you to remember your place Uzumaki, unless you want me to remind you of it myself." Neji arrogantly stated, tired of Naruto's pointless drabble.

The young Hyuga was now prepared to silence his opponent once and for all, thereby proving to the younger genin how fate truly does govern all.

"I will not tolerate you not only insulting Hinata but also breaking her confidence. She is far stronger than what you believe her to be, and I do not care for this main Hyuga, branch Hyuga crap. Its pieces of shits like you Neji that piss me off by automatically labeling others as losers. I will never forgive this!" Naruto said angrily.

The jinchuriki would not let the other boy go unpunished for the trauma he has inflicted upon Hinata, for arrogantly holding himself better than everyone else because of his genius, and for openly belittling people for being kind and hard-working. Smirking to himself, Neji began to explain to Naruto the dreaded curse that every single branch-member in the Hyuga clan holds since birth as the reason for his hatred. Neji thought he might as well show Naruto the cause, assuming that it would help in causing the blonde to come to the realization that there is nothing to hope for and fight for in life.

"Naruto, are you aware that the main Hyugas have a special jutsu that they pass down from generation to generation, to use on the branch family? It is a jutsu, which inflicts a curse mark seal onto its victim. Formally, it is known as the Hyuga Main Family's Cursed Seal Technique. However, to those in the branch family, it's known as the bird in the cage jutsu." Neji stated as he began to pull off his head protector to show Naruto the burden he carried.

Thus, with his head protector off of him, Neji revealed the sickly green curse seal. It took the appearance of the skeleton of a fan with two lines running on both sides. After showing his curse seal to Naruto, Neji further explained the circumstance in which he received the curse seal. He informed Naruto that Hinata, at the age of three, became the heiress to the main branch, which consequently resulted in Neji receiving the curse seal marked on the same day. Furthermore, the Hyuga clarified how the seal would allow any main branch Hyugas to use the seal to kill a branch Hyuga instantly by destroying the mind.

Concluding that, this was the ultimately fate of a Hyuga, and is the reason for why the branch house of the family refer to the seal as the bird in the cage jutsu. Each member of the branch house is like a bird in a cage, trapped in a world that they can not escape, in which only through death will they ever truly be free.

"Overall, The point of the branch family is to serve and protect the members of the main branch. We are merely pawns that are seen as disposable when needed. Our lives are worthless and are only valued when sacrificing our own for the main branch. Just like my father. Many years ago, around the time Hinata turned three, elite leaders of the hidden Cloud village visited the Leaf village to sign a treaty of peace with Konoha. However, that was only a ploy for the Leaf to lower their guard. The real motive of the Cloud was to obtain the Byakugan. While the village held a celebration on the treaty, that night the same ninja, whom had signed the treaty, had attempted to abduct Hinata-sama to obtain the Byakugan. Fortunately for Hinata, her father, Hiashi, managed to intervene and quickly dealt with the shinobi by killing the leader." Neji stated, hatred clearly evident in his tone of voice.

He took that moment to pause and to divert his gaze towards Hiashi. The young Hyuga would never forgive the man for destroying his childhood for taking away his father and placing the curse seal on him. Neji's gaze full of hatred towards Hiashi ended as quickly as it began. With his display of anger over, the Hyuga genius swiftly regained his composure before returning his full attention on Naruto.

"The cloud village demanded Hiashi's corpse as payment for the death of their own. It seemed that they had included and planned for the death of their ninja, so that regardless of the incident, they would receive the body of a Hyuga. Despite their desire for the Hyuga's kekkei genkai, the byakugan would not fall under their possessions that night. Hizashi, my father took his brother's place instead and was sent to his death, all for the sake of protecting the clan's secret. He was killed and handed over to them like a slaughtered pig. Thanks to the seal, it stopped the cloud's plan to obtain the secrets of the byakugan because, upon the carrier's death, the byakugan instantly becomes sealed to prevent any foreign enemy from obtaining it. Taking everything into account, it was destiny for my father to be born second and valued less than Hiashi despite their strength virtually being the same due to being twins. Now, just like destiny chose for my father to die, it will show you that I am the victor of this match." Neji said, lacing venom along the words he spoke, an action that reflect how passionate he was regarding the firm grasp of destiny.

The young prodigy was focused on revealing to Naruto that, even with hope and courage, a person can not escape the path that destiny has chosen for them.

"I can understand how it must of hurt greatly to see your father die in such a cruel way, but you can not use that as an excuse for this destiny nonsense. What would your father want from you? Do you really believe that he would be happy to see that his son let hatred control his life? Your Father did not die because he was doing his role as a member of the branch house, but because of his genuine love for his brother. Now, Neji, it is time to snap out of this destiny crap and throw away the anger you hold for the main branch. Learn to discover that destiny is a force that YOU control every single day with the power within yourself. Life is ultimately a reflection of the effort and dedication you put into overcoming the struggles in your life" Naruto calmly said.

The young blonde was doing his best to emphasize to the other genin that, despite the darkness in life, joy and light truly did exist in the world.

"Lies. They're all lies. You are ignorant to the truth Uzumaki. My father was simply a sacrifice to preserve the main branch, and nothing more. Do not speak of things that you have no knowledge of. You have no idea on how it feels to be placed with a burden, that you have no control over. What you speak of does not exist and is only false hope to those who are oblivious to the truth of life. " Neji dryly stated as he tied on his head protector again.

As soon as he secured his forehead protector, Neji charged towards Naruto, intending to end the dragged out battle now that nothing more was left to say. Once in range, Neji slammed his palm into Naruto's stomach, causing the genin to skid backwards across the ground. After a few moments, Naruto forced his body to stop skidding and merely watched Neji turned his back to him.

"Don't turn your back on me, destiny boy. You're not as special as you make yourself out to be. I'm special too and so is Hinata! You have no idea of the pain she carries, nor the suffering I have experienced growing up. In comparison to my burden, mine greatly overshadows yours, making your burden appear as a small pebble. So, don't you dare say that you're the only person who is cursed? Because many other suffer far greater, yet manage to keep going strong in life." Naruto passionately shouted at Neji, whom had turned back to glare at the Uzumaki.

The fire in the eyes of both genin were ablaze, each intended to end the other's preaching about life.

"Bah. What do you and Hinata suffer from? Nothing, that's what. You have nothing special about you, your just another lose whom destiny has frowned upon. I do not want to hear more speak of defying destiny. You yourself are in no position to talk about destiny. Your fate was sealed since the moment all sixty-four chakra points were closed in the beginning of our match. This match was over from that point on, so forfeit now." Neji critically stated, fully confident that the younger genin would prove himself as no imminent threat now that his chakra points have suffered repeated hits.

"Don't count on it, destiny eyes. Destiny is crap in my eyes, and I'm not out of this match just yet. In fact, you're about to face the true power of Naruto Uzumaki! Believe it!" Naruto eagerly said before channeling the tailed-beasts chakra and feeling the surge of power rush through all his closed chakra points.

Neji, with the Byakugan activated, watched in shock that the chakra began to flood throughout Naruto's chakra network channels. The mysterious chakra slowly but surely opened each chakra point, one by one until they all looked as if they were never blocked. All Neji could do was look on in amazement, that somehow the younger genin managed to achieve the impossible. Once the chakra was done opening his chakra points, it died down revealing Naruto with a confident smirk on his faced, directed towards Neji.

"I promise Neji, that when I become Hokage, I will change the Hyuga way! I will end the curse seal that plagues you and all the members of the branch house. That goes for all of you! Do you hear me? Naruto Uzumaki never goes back on his words! Believe it! " Naruto bravely shouted before suddenly appearing right in front of Neji. Neji, having no time to prepare for the attack, received a blow to his forehead courtesy of Naruto's own forehead.

The collision of both genin was short, yet proved to disorientate Neji from responding properly to the assault. Because of Neji's current condition, Naruto took advantage of it by vanishing from sight, only to reappear from behind to deliver a strong kick upward, sending the Hyuga flying in the air. Quickly, Naruto appeared in front of Neji to land a powerful kick into his stomach, sending his flying towards the wall. However, Naruto intercepted Neji's path by appearing in front of him in mid flight. He swiftly gripped Neji by the cuff of the boy's collar, ending his assault by throwing him high into the sky.

Once on the ground, Naruto channelled chakra to his feet, bursting into the sky to unleash a torrent of punches and kicks against Neji's torso. The blonde landed one last kick into Neji's stomach, sending the Hyuga prodigy crashing down towards the ground. All Naruto saw was Neji's body impacting hard onto the ground, from the thirty-foot drop. One the dusk cleared, Neji Hyuga's body could be seen lying on the ground motionless with the Hyuga falling unconscious. At this point Genma decided to reappear into the audience's sight, to announce the victor of the first match in the Chunin Exams Finals.

"Neji Hyuga is hereby unable to continue. Winner, Uzumaki Naruto." Genma firmly announced into his headset upon further inspection of Neji's state of conscious. No sooner did he say those words than the audience went wild, fiercely cheering Naruto's name for utterly defeating the prodigy of the Hyuga clan. The roar of the audience was nothing new to Naruto, having experienced the same event in his previous time, but it still brought him joy to know that the village would begin to acknowledge his skills as a qualified shinobi of the Leaf. Once the crowd's excitement died down, Genma began to speak again regarding the course of the following matches.

"Attention due to the absence of Sasuke Uchiha, the second match of the Chunin Exams finals between Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara of the Desert, will be pushed back for now… the next match will be between Kankuro of the Desert and Fu." Stated Genma, after receiving orders from the Sandaime to reschedule the second match in the tournament, and instead to move onto the next match.

After all, many in the audience had come to witness the legendary last of the Uchiha, and would be quite disappointed and enraged to discover that the Uchiha was disqualified for not appearing on schedule.

"Finally my turn!" Fu excitedly said, immediately jumping out of the contestant area in hopes of having a challenging match with her opponent.

Little did she know that her match was not meant to be as her Kankuro had different plans, which would require him to perform well in combat during the sand invasion.

"I quit." Kankuro stated immediately, not caring how it would make him look in the eyes of his opponent or the spectators.

The sand part in Orochimaru's invasion after all was of more importance, and he couldn't be of use if he was injured during battle, now could he.

"You stupid bastard! Wash that girlish make up off and fight me like a man! Did you lose your balls?" Fu furiously said, anger could not describe Fu's current state of rage while staring up towards Kankuro.

She could not understand how any one would easily forfeit, after having to follow the standards set upon by the intense match between Naruto and Neji.

'Grr… That kunoichi is toast. I will make sure that she suffer later during the invasion.' Kankuro thought to himself, contemplating methods of torture he could inflict upon Fu during the war.

Besides Gaara, Kankuro allowed no one to ridicule him without paying the consequences of their actions, and Fu would be no exception to that. Only time would tell if Kankuro were to receive his revenge on Fu for taunting him regarding his manhood. Fu was however stopped from continuing her verbal assault by Genma, whom as proctor had to announce the next match now that Kankuro had forfeited.

"Kankuro of the Desert has forfeited. Winner, Fu. Now please go back to the arena. Your in the way of the next match, which has to begin now." Genma plainly stated towards the furious Fu, whom merely stomped off back to the arena.

Once there, instead of heading to the contestant booth, she decided to sit with Sakura, taking the vacant seat next to her. As soon as she sat down, Sakura wrapped an arm around her friend, hoping to alleviate the stress the other genin was experiencing from having her match end before it began on the basis of Kankuro's surrender. Meanwhile, the crowd had settled down from the anger of having a shinobi immediately forfeit a match prior to it even starting, in the Finals of the Chunin Exams. Genma took this opportunity to announce the fourth match in the tournament.

"Fourth match of the Chunin Exam Finals: Temari of the Desert vs. Shikamaru Nara." Genma casually stated, hoping to start the fourth match as quickly as possible.

As soon as Genma spoke, Shikamaru decide to speak up in order to forfeit. However, while taking the chance to look at his opponent, he noticed how eager Temari appeared for the fight. Suddenly, before he could announce his withdrawal from the exam, Naruto had pushed him over the contestant booth and it resulted in the audience cheering him on, believing that he was actually excited to begin his match.

'Grrr. That blonde baka has forced me to participate in this match now. There is no way that sand kunoichi will let me leave after the look I saw on her face. Man. What a drag!' Shikamaru bitterly thought to himself, seeing no one out of the predicament that Naruto forced upon him.

While Shikamaru was internally debating on how to best go about his match without putting to much effort, Naruto watched the audience carefully for any slight difference. However, his thoughts were interrupted with Genma announcing the next match in the tournament.

"Now without further ado, Fourth match of the Chunin Exams Finals: Temari of the Desert vs. Nara Shikamaru. Begin!" Genma quickly exclaimed. Like the first match, he jumped away from the competitors to allow the start of their fight. As the battle between Shikamaru and Temari began, Naruto was scouting through the whole arena and could not locate Jiraiya in his disguise, no matter how hard he tried.

'His disguise must be really good.' Naruto thought to himself, pondering how else would the perverted sage possessed the ability to escape his senses.

If only Naruto had known of Jiraiya's particular disguise, then he would have fallen to the ground in laughter at how the expert spy stooped as low as to wear such a disguise. Not finding Jiraiya, Naruto looked back as Shikamaru to see the Nara had caught Temari in his Shadow Imitation jutsu before he himself gave up, stating how troublesome it would in having to fight another round.

"Shikamaru Nara forfeits. Winner, Temari of the Desert." Stated Genma, not so surprise to see a Nara give up on a fight against a woman. Genma's announcement only caused Temari to becoming even more enraged with Shikamaru for allowing her to win their match. Despite knowing that the invasion would begin before the second round had a chance to commence, Temari was still upset at the fact that she had lost and was only still in the tournament due to the laziness of her opponent. With Temari declared victor, it left the second match of the Chunin Exams Finals as the only match to not be shown.

Genma waited several minutes to provide Sasuke with a suitable amount of time before announcing the Uchiha's disqualification. After receiving a message from the Sandaime Hokage to unfortunately announce the exclusion of Sasuke, Genma was ready to proclaim the news to the awaiting audience. However, suddenly the stadium was filled with a whirlwind of leaves as Sasuke and Kakashi appeared in the center of the arena in a miniature tornado of leaves, having arrived right before Genma's declaration.

"Sorry we're late. Is Sasuke still eligible to compete in his match?" Kakashi lightly said, causing a sweat drop to form on Genma's forehead.

The tokubetsu jonin, despite knowing Kakashi, felt the cyclop's behaviour to be more comical than usual, considering how he easily he dismissed the fact that his student was almost disqualified from the Chunin Exam Finals.

"No, he is just in time. Just leave so I can start the last match of the first round." Genma asserted, informing the white-haired Jonin on how to react. Giving a not to Genma, Kakashi quickly disappeared in a puff of smoke courtesy of the Body Flicker Jutsu, leaving Sasuke to await his match against Gaara.

"Fu, That was Kakashi sensei and Sasuke." Sakura whispered to Fu, informing the kunoichi of who composed the remaining part of Team Seven. With that said, Sakura left Fu to her thoughts, knowing her friend would be curious on learning more about the missing two members of Team Seven. The said kunoichi was lost in thoughts on trying to determine Sasuke and Kakashi's personality, from just their late arrival alone.

**You know the Drill. Rate and Review. Haha that just sounds demanding! Though I would honestly appreciate to hear your thoughts on this chapter.**

Author Note: The next chapter will be the beginning of the second week of April. Sorry about this but my beta reader has been super swamped this last month or so. From then on every chapter will be revised by him and posted every two weeks. I am currently writing chapter 33 but I rather he revises them with his magical skills so that the chapters are at its best. Thank you all for all of your patience. I hope each of you can understand.

**FOXJ NS 4EVER - A big thank you for doing such a brilliant BOOM full of amazement on this chapter. Truly he made my poop of a description into gold of this chapter. The second part to this shall be this Saturday! Sorry it had to be split into two parts and honestly a big thanks to my friend as he truly has had a lot of stuff to do in the last few weeks and he used the small amount of time he had each time to work on my chapter :)**


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